It was always you
by luvtoshi
Summary: The war is long over. They have both grown. Now it's time to conclude their story. Naruto and Sakura.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **

**Thanks for reading this story, my little fantasy of how things would be later.**

**This 7 chaptered story is post time skip and borderline AU. Involuntarily, it contains many cliché Naruto fanfics situations.**

**I do not own Naruto.**

XOXOX

"Oh, hell!" Yamanaka Ino muttered, and Haruno Sakura quirked her eyebrows up, causing the blond to look ruffled as she caught the pink haired medic-nin's amused glance.

"Is that just a general remark about the restaurant, or was there something particular that you had in mind?" Sakura queried innocently.

For a second Ino looked a little exasperated with her, eyes flashing as she glared at the beautiful but mocking face of the twenty two years old nationwide famous medic-nin. The years had brought many changes in Haruno Sakura, resulting in the now poised, beautiful, sleek figured, though war waned young woman. She had regrown her hair slightly past her shoulders, which was currently tied in her usual low napped ponytail from which some tantalising bangs escaped, the jade green eyes held a discreet glow of confidence which her spectacular growth had alighted, and the most noticeable change on her face was the green diamond shaped chakra point on her forehead- proof of one of her many outstanding achievements of the past years.

It has been after a while that the two friends had managed to meet for lunch, and for that day, they had decided to try the new food outlet which boasted to have the best tempura in town.

Sakura held her friend's eyes, her amusement growing, and Ino suddenly gave an impatient sigh, her tight expression relaxing.

"You can laugh all you want, Forehead, but our conversation is not over yet."

"Are you going to explain the sudden oath or do I have to look around the room and guess?" Sakura asked wryly, at the same time inwardly grimacing at the warning.

Ino had been right in the middle of giving her the you-should-find-a-boyfriend lecture; lecture which Sakura should not have been too surprised by - seeing that the last couple of times that the two friends had managed to meet for lunch Ino had insistently brought the subject up - but which still did not cease to exasperate her. It seemed that her love life, rather, the lack of it, was the hottest topic of conversation whenever the two of them met now.

Lowering her head and bending closer, Ino whispered, 'I've just spotted someone that I could very well do without seeing. It's this Jounin who've been asking me out constantly the past couple of weeks- he doesn't seem to understand the word NO. "

Sakura raised her eyebrows in surprise. Ino having trouble to lay someone off? The Yamanaka girl was known to be blunt to the point of harshness when needed, so how come she could not keep an undesirable admirer at bay? Sakura curbed the reflex to look around, her curiosity piqued on what sort of man it could be.

"I'll just pretend not to have seen him," Ino whispered. "Hopefully he'll get the message and not come over."

"Have you told him you're already engaged?" Sakura asked, intrigued. She found it rather hard to believe that the man would still pursue an _engaged_ girl. And Ino Yamanaka was a very much engaged gal. Since two months now.

"Maybe I haven't…yet," Ino shrugged vaguely. Seeing Sakura's eye roll, she said defensively, "I haven't got the opportunity yet! It's still all so recent."

Ino's two-years story with Chouji had finally been concluded by an engagement, with the wedding planned at the end of the year. Sakura was very happy for her friend; she and Chouji were so much in love with each other, and it was clear on how much Chouji doted on her. It seemed that her engagement had not stopped her from flirting around, though, Sakura thought ruefully.

"I'm sure he'll back off when he'll learn that you're engaged," Sakura said firmly, her almost accusing eyes not lost on Ino.

"Now, don't get all lecturing on me, Haruno. You, who've yet to kiss a man, let alone date one!"

"Geez, why do you make it sound like it's a mortal sin?" grumbled Sakura, torn between mortification and annoyance, the latter winning finally as she glared at the blond girl.

"It _is_ a sin, at your age!" Ino exclaimed.

Sakura glared even harder at her. "Hey, I'm twenty-two, not hundred years old!" she protested, rubbing her temple, a dull headache beginning to grip her. _What is it with everybody nagging me about my love life?_ She fumed to herself. It was as if she wore a banner on her forehead saying: '_Nag me, I'm single_!' the way she had been getting comments on her single status recently. Her mother had been at it since some time now, her most used argument being that she was getting _old_. There had even been this random old woman at the hospital, who had snarkily commented that at her _age_, Sakura should find herself a husband.

"By shinobi's standard, twenty-two years is considered _old_!" Ino said dramatically.

"Ino!" Sakura felt like banging her head on the table. It was great to be able to have lunch together, to catch up some girls' talk, but she now wanted to throttle the friend of hers.

"You don't know when we can get killed in duty," Ino insisted, "your life could end tomorrow and you would have died not knowing one of the basic the pleasures of life."

"In case you've conveniently forgotten, we've been at war during the past years! Romance or the _pleasures_ of life was the last thing on my mind!" Sakura retorted indignantly. They have had this argument so many times that she felt like a broken replaying recorder.

Blond brows arched. "It's been almost two years since war is over now, so that's not an excuse!"

Sakura sighed. True, war had been over for two years now, but the rebuilding up of the almost totally destroyed Konoha had been as strenuous as the war itself. It had taken two hard, long, painful years, but they had made it. Most of the destroyed buildings had been rebuilt and life was slowly getting back to normal. Finally, their beloved village, once more, stood in its proud glory.

Ino's eyes suddenly got a telltale thoughtful look, which made Sakura squirm in her seat.

"I could arrange a date with that guy for you," she mused, looking behind Sakura, presumably at her mysterious persistent admirer whom Sakura had yet to see.

"Ino!" growled Sakura menacingly, "Don't even think about it. Besides, I'm not going to hook up with the first guy coming my way because you feel that I'm getting too old! You should know me better than that!"

But of course, Yamanaka Ino was not one to drop her most favourite topic: romance. Concerning Sakura, on top of it."Okay, okay, no stranger for you," she conceded. "Let's look into someone you know, then. You have to at least _start_ somewhere, Forehead!"

That only made Sakura quiver with nervousness. She felt that the conversation was steering into dangerous waters.

"Are you totally sure that Sasuke is out of your list?" Ino ventured, and Sakura expelled a sharp, warning sigh, a vein ticking on her forehead as she glared at her friend. "Guess yes," the blond hastily retracted, waving her hands defensively in front of her.

She could understand Sakura's reaction, as she herself had gotten over the Uchiha. Both girls had been able to wrap up _that_ part of their life, with the conclusion that their childhood crush for Sasuke had just been that- a huge, juvenile crush of two twelve years old girls.

Ino gave a whimsical smile. "We finally did it, eh?" she murmured, her eyes drawn in the past. "The two most ardent Uchiha fan-girls…and the two biggest rivals…We finally got over him. Moreso when he's back here in Konoha, single, available, and you must agree, still as cool as ever."

A slow responding smile appeared on Sakura's face. _Yes. We did it, _she thought. It had taken a lot of hurt emotions and self evaluation to finally admit that whatever she had felt for Uchiha Sasuke had been a twelve years old little girl's dreams, and nothing more. The older she had got, the more wisdom she had acquired, the more Sakura had realised that the feelings she had always harboured for the boy had been so _futile_. The Sasuke she had always chased after didn't really exist. For so many years, she had clung desperately to a false image in her heart; she had created a Sasuke which _she_ had wanted in her mind, and finally, she had to agree that she had always chased a mere fantasy.

When Sasuke had finally returned back to Konoha, that feeling had been concluded. The young man who had faced her had been a total stranger; albeit with traces of her twelve year old former team-mate, which had been the driving factor that she and Naruto had held on and slowly rebuild their bond of friendship with him afterall. It had been liberating to learn that she had indeed got over her childhood crush on the boy.

Sakura was so immersed in her own memories that she missed the devilish gleam in her friend's eyes.

"What about our Hokage?" The coy voice broke her through her thoughts.

Sakura immediately snapped her attention back to her friend. The suggestive way the blond was waggling her eyebrows made Sakura suspicious that she had been angling towards this particular topic since the beginning.

Schooling her features into a neutral expression, emerald eyes guarded, she replied casually, "What about him?"

Ino gave an impatient sigh. "Come on, Billboard Brow, what do you intend to do about what you try so hard to hide?"

Ino smirked as Sakura did a double take.

"What do you mean?"

"Sakura, we've been friends, then rivals, then friends again for ages now. Trust me, I _know_ when you are interested in someone."

"It's nothing like that!" protested Sakura. "He's is my friend." _My best friend._ "So, naturally I tend to look after him."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Okay, whatever makes you feel safe; but seeing that he has always had a crush on you, why don't you two get together?"

"Ino! Please," Sakura groaned, as she rubbed the ridge of her nose, feeling her headache mounting.

"What? You know that he'll jump at the occasion of going out with you," Ino persisted, scrutinising the medic nin's face closely. "And you must admit that he's not a bad catch at all. He's sooooooo hot!"

Sakura willed herself not to get too reactive. "You're wrong," she said quietly, "he's long over his crush for me."

"No. He's not," Ino insisted. "He has never gone out with anyone too; it must be because he still feels for you. I'm sure he would be more than willing to go out with you if you _show_ the slight interest!"

Sakura felt she had to stop this conversation, now. She did not like the way their Hokage was being talked about, as if he had a weak point. It felt so demeaning to him.

"Ino, stop it. He's no more that twelve year old boy." Ino opened her mouth to protest, but Sakura quickly pressed on. "The only reason he has not gone out with anyone yet is because he has been so _dedicated_ in his Hokage duty," she said, looking at the blond girl almost accusingly. "He had been devoting all his time to protect the village, you know that."

"It doesn't mean that he's not interested in you anymore!" Ino argued. "Why don't you ask him out and see?"

Sakura remained silent, trying to keep her cool.

Ignoring her friend's mounting exasperation, Ino continued, "Sakura, we're emancipated women, we should not be expected to sit back lamely and expect a man to fall on our lap! If you like someone, take things in your hands, why should you hesitate to make the first step?"

"Ino!" Sakura hissed, fighting to keep her voice low so as not to attract attention. "Emancipated? In case you don't know, at twelve years old, I confessed to Sasuke that I loved him, and all I got in return was a 'Thank you' and was knocked unconscious and left on a cold bench for the night. At sixteen years old, I told Naruto that I love him, and what I got this time was an 'I hate people who lie to themselves'!" Her green eyes glowered with the memories as she glared at her friend. "Trust me, I've had my share of taking first steps and being rejected; enough to last me for a lifetime!"

Ino stared open mouthed at her. "Sakura…"

A short silence ensured. Sakura took a deep breath to calm herself. She began to feel guilty for her outburst; Ino had only meant well, she should not have flared at her like that.

"Ino, I'm sorry. I overreacted." She looked apologetically at her friend. "I_"

"No. I'm the one who's sorry," Ino interrupted quietly.

Sakura, not liking the dejected look on Ino's face, forced a laugh. "Hey, Ino pig, don't be so glum. Life goes on!" she said with a forced gaiety. She did not want _pity_.

"Sakura, this does not negate the fact that you _do_ have feelings for him."

Sakura was about to vehemently deny the statement again, but the shrewd eyes of her friend stopped her. She gave an inner sigh of defeat.

"It's of no importance, anyway. I was too late," she said in a low voice, giving a nonchalant shrug and avoiding the sharp scrutinising gaze. "That's called Karma," she continued derisively. "When he was interested in me, I always rejected him. Remember the bitch I was back then? Eventually, when everything was set that I started to get interested in him, it seemed that he was already over whatever he felt for me."

The derisive tone did not fool Ino; she could detect a flash hidden pain behind those green orbs.

"Sakura…we were _all_ twelve-years-old drama queens and bitches at that time. Surely you can't be beating yourself about that…?"

"Well, he does deserve someone who does not have the taint of having been nasty to him, ever."

"Sakura!" Ino gaped at her, dismayed.

"Hey, it's okay, Ino. I'm_ fine._" She flashed a reassuring smile. "I'm not 12 years old anymore; I have other priorities than my heart story. I'm happy with my life." Grabbing her chopsticks, she made a big deal out of filling her plate from the platter which they were to share. "Now, let's get back to these delicious tempuras while they are still hot, and tell me about the admirer of yours," she said firmly. "Maybe I can help you to find a way to put him definitely off."

XOXOX

On her way back to the hospital a while later, Sakura automatically rose her head towards the Hokage Monument Mountain. A small smile, holding a mixture of fierce pride and tenderness, broke out on her face as she gazed at the latest addition to the mountain, Konoha's 6th Hokage. He had not been too keen to have his face carved at that time, claiming that it was not a priority, that Konoha needed the funds for more important things. But his protests had been unanimously swept away. Everybody had wanted to see the effigy of their beloved hero as soon as possible up along the other Hokages.

The dozens sculptors who had worked on the portrait had done a fantastic job, Sakura thought once again. Even though it was carved in cold stone, they had managed to capture the unique warmth which the Rokudaime, Uzumaki Naruto, always emitted.

Sakura thoughts went back to the conversation she had with Ino. It was true what she had told her friend, she was content with her life. Just as many predicted, namely, Jiraiya, Chiyo and Kakashi, Sakura had surpassed Tsunade, her master, in both the medical field and battlefield. The girl who came from a civilian family, who had no bloodline limit or shinobi legacy given to her, had worked extremely hard and had managed to overcome all the obstacles to rise high. She was now a name which was recognised and very much respected throughout the five nations. She had finally made the summoning contract with the Slugs, feat which had been possible with her mastering the chakra reserve technique taught by Tsunade. The chakra reserve has also raised her to many higher levels of ninjutsu, genjutsu and had further perfected her medical ninjutsu.

She now occupied two very important positions as a Kunoichi: one as head medic nin of Konoha, with Tsunade as consultant and Shizune shouldering her, and the other, most important for her, as the med-nin security escort of the Hokage. Just as Gaaraa, the Kazekage, always moved with Temari and Kankura by his sides, the Rokudaime did not move without his two escorts, one being Sakura. And Sakura prized that position above all. As his escort, she could accomplish the vow she had made to herself long ago: that to do all she could to protect her cherished friend, now their Hokage.

_Naruto…_

If on one hand, one truth was she was definitely over Uchiha Sasuke, on the other hand, her feelings concerning her blond former team mate was a conclusion which she had carefully kept locked within herself, and avoided to ponder upon. Whatever burgeoning feelings she had developed for him had been staled at a status quo. It's not as if she had much choice too; he had seemed so sure of himself when he had implied that she was lying to herself, those years ago. She did not have the emotional stamina to go through another part of her life by trying to prove her feelings to someone– _again_… She was done chasing loves which finally, maybe were never destined to be hers. Though she may have become an impressive Kunoichi to be feared and respected, when it concern heart matters, she was still more vulnerable than most. But she worked hard not to let her life be overruled by her romantic emotions.

She and Naruto may not be romantically involved, but the closeness they already shared was precious above all. She was happy with that. He was her best friend, her buddy, her confidant, and still a bit her punching bag. What they shared was sweat and blood and tears and an unbreakable bond, and she fiercely treasured that bond. She would never do anything to jeopardise that bond, even if it meant having to stifle her feelings.

She sighed wistfully as the hospital came into view. As soon she set foot in the familiar setting, her mind immediately tuned into the work awaiting her; she could not have the luxury of doing otherwise.

XOXOXO

"I can't believe that it's six years already."

Cheeks slightly flushed, brown eyes slightly blurred with pain which she tried to hold, the former fiftth Hokage gave a deep sigh and took another sip from her sake cup.

"Yeah," the low, gruff voice of Uzumaki Naruto resonated, as he gazed at the kanji which was etched in the stone; kanji which himself had etched years ago.

"Teacher" it said. It was the sixth anniversary of the death of Jiraiya.

The two Hokages, the former Godaime, which had stepped down from her position two years back and the actual Rokudaime, sat cross legged in front of the tombstone, the warm summer sun shining down on them. Tsunade had ceremoniously set out three cups – she brought spares, just in case, she said – and a bottle of sake, and the two made a toast to the much missed Sannin. Naruto solemnly took slow, tiny sips of the only cup he's had so far, never having had a liking for the thing, while Tsunade was at her umpteenth cup, thus the flushed cheeks.

They made a striking pair, both blond, one tall, lithe, subtle muscle exhibiting the vitality of young strength and masculine, the other emanating wisdom of numerous years, still curvaceously beautiful and feminine.

"He wouldn't have wanted us to still mope for his death," Tsunade said whimsically. "He said his job was to help the next generation and set a good example for them, that he'll gladly put his life on the line, and keep smiling throughout."

A silence fell over them, as both set out in a short journey of memories. Giving a mental shake, Tsunade expelled a deep sigh.

"War is over, life goes on." She raised her cup to take another swig of the fiery drink.

"Hmm." Naruto looked at the almost empty bottle of sake, deep affection etching in the cerulean eyes. "And you still drown them like a champ," he teased. He grinned as she glared at him.

"Hey, Gaki, don't go too cheeky on me now," she warned.

"As of I would," he quickly retorted, mock scared, the blue eyes dancing.

Tsunade contemplated the handsome face of the young man; face, which, much to her dissatisfaction, had been too serious and rarely smiling the past couple of years. He was a far cry from the little twelve years old boy she had met for the first time those years ago. His face was now leaner, more angular, masculine, though he still wore his hair in the same spiky, untamed style; his body was totally cut and excluding a subtle power which the red Hokage robes did not hide. And he now towered over her, having undergo his last growth spurt.

His ascension to the much cherished title has not been an easy task. She recalled the fight she had with some of the council members two years back when she had announced her intention to retire and proposed him as her next successor. One of the main front of resistance had been that he was too young for the job. While they were indeed right in some ways – at only twenty years old, Naruto had still lacked some of the maturity that was needed to rule a village, she had argued that if there were anybody who could really take care of Konoha and protect the village thoroughly, it would be him. He was already the popular choice and approved by the mass as the future Hokage, being the hero several times by then.

Another claim had been that he had not had any students or apprentice studying under him. Tsunade would never forget the opposers' expression of dumbfoundness when Ibizu had immediately contested that.

"_Sarutobi Konohamaru, grandson of the late third Hokage, and my student, had been Uzumaki Naruto's unofficial apprentice since he was seven years old," _he had proudly announced._ "Among many jutsus, Naruto had taught him the Sexy Jutsu_"_

"_You count that as a teaching?" _had immediately scoffed Koharu Utatane._ "It shows what a poor teacher the demon fox child is!" _she had said spitefully_._

"_AND the rasengan."_

Gasps of shock had resonated in the room. It was widely known that the fourth's Jutsu, the Rasengan, was mastered by a very selected few. For someone to have taught it, and the learner to have mastered it, was quite a big feat.

But still, the Feudal lord had hesitated, and wanted Tsunade to maintain her position for a longer while. It was only when Tsunade had revealed that her lifespan had dramatically decreased due to her chakra reserve having been overused too many times, and her only hope to extend her life was to retire from the Shinobi life, that the Feudal Lord began to give in. The decision was finalised when Nara Shikaku had intervened, and vetoed that Naruto being undoubtly the strongest shinobi of Konoha, the Hokage title was his by right.

And Naruto was made the sixth Hokage of Konoha.

Tsunade felt a bit bad that his much cherished dream had been realised at a very difficult time, when Konoha had been bent totally on its knees by war. But the young man had pulled through with flying colours. Due his uncanny, unique ability to win people over, and his vast network of international friendships, much help had come forth to re-construct Konoha, and old alliances had re-solidified even stronger.

Looking at him now, and seeing his achievements, she was so glad that her decision had been right. But she dearly hoped that it was not at the cost of him losing his unique, sunny character.

"Naruto, don't try to grow old _too_ fast," she said softly. "Don't let yourself get brittled into a work addicted man."

Blue eyes looked quizzically at her. "I though you always complained that I was too immature, that I needed to tone down a bit?"

The older blond smirked. "Well, true, but I miss the knucklehead that you were," she admitted. "Just don't let yourself be hardened into a dark being."

Naruto grinned widely, his eyes creasing in the old familiar way as he did. "Don't worry, Baa-chan," he chuckled. His thoughts went to his mother, Kushina. "After all, being a knucklehead is in my blood," he said softly, as the memory of the cheerful attitude that his mother had when they first met in the fox realm, despite all the hardship that she had been through, came to his mind.

Tsunade smiled ruefully, knowing exactly what he was making allusion to. "Kushina…Yes. It's unquestionable that you have inherited her character," she agreed.

He felt a deep sense of pride at her words. The painfully brief time he had met his mother had been enough to make him love her with all his being, and any allusion that he resembled her fill him with a fierce pride.

"Thankfully things are looking much better now," Tsunade said after a short silence. "It's high time you relax and have some fun. Time for romance." A mischievous glint crept into her eyes as she looked at him. "Surely it's not too difficult, what with the horde of willing, screaming fan girls that you now have at your heels."

"Hey, it's not as if I ask for that type of attention!" Naruto protested, a pink hue creeping up his cheeks.

"Well then, do you have someone particular in mind?" she queried. She had a knowing look in her eyes while she observed him carefully.

Oh yes, he did have someone in mind. He has had her in mind ever since his tender childhood.

He did not reply immediately, his thoughts on his mother again. _"Find a girl like me to love!"_ Kushina had told him. And he could not think of anyone who would be more similar to Kushina that the one he had always had in mind.

"Yes, I do," he finally murmured, his thoughts on the scariest, most hot-tempered, most loud-mouthed and smartest Kunoichi of their generation in Konoha. The one for whom his heart had always raced.

_Sakura-chan_.

But actually _doing_ something about it was another whole story.

Tsunade smirked, guessing who his thoughts were onto and guessing the reason of his hesitance.

"Don't be discouraged by past refusals, Naruto. Among the lasts words of your teacher said," she pointed her chin towards the memorial stone at this, "was that 'getting rejected always makes a man stronger'."

Naruto chuckled, internally agreeing. He noticed the deeply sad and remorseful look that had crept onto the woman's face.

"If only…" she sighed heavily. _If only I could turn back time,_ she thought, at the same time chiding herself for the weak, foolish hope. It was too late for regrets now. "Naruto, some things need to be done in their right due time, and I think _now_ is the good time for you to make your move," she said softly, firmly. "Take some time for yourself, for your personal life, you highly deserve that."

XOXOX

"Your _shadow_ must be somewhere around?" Tsunade asked later, as the two made their way back to the village.

Naruto chuckled, "Yeah."

He _was_ technically outside Konoha, even though they were just on the outskirt of the village, so naturally as Hokage, he would have someone at his tail. He was glad that it was one of his two security escorts, not some anonymous ANBU. He stopped at a tall tree. The glacial aura was too obvious to be missed.

"Teme! Are you sleeping up there or what?" he called out.

Silence.

The next instance, with a graceful landing, Uchiha Sasuke appeared besides the two.

"We are done," Naruto announced cheerfully, stating the obvious.

"Hn."

Sasuke nodded a greeting at Tsunade.

Watching the two, Tsunade felt a nostalgia swelling up her stomach. Her old team, consisting of Jiraiya, Orochimaru and herself, had been a mirror image of the legendary team 7. But with totally different outcome, though. Where her own team had failed, team 7 had succeeded. Team 7 had been reunited again.

_It shows that the new generation would indeed always surpass the older one,_ she thought.

Naruto smirked at Sasuke. "Hope you weren't too bored up there?" he asked, only to be met by an expressionless face. "Oh, I forgot, snakes like to bask under the sun, right?" he added slyly.

This time he was met with a narrowed glare, the black eyes flashing. Naruto's grin widened. Any reaction from his cold, silent friend made him feel triumphant.

One of his most prided achievements was that he had managed to bring his best friend, his brother, home. After all the long years of chasing after him, the final step has been almost easy, finally. When he had, at last, faced the Uchiha, the long awaited, destined confrontation, Naruto had struck a deal with him.

"_If I defeat you today, you have to give me your word that you would return back to Konoha. You will have to make the pledge to become a shinobi of Konoha again."_

Sasuke had laughed arrogantly. _"You really think you can beat me, Dobe?" _he had sneered._ "I'll crush you in a jiffy!"_

"_The more reason that you shouldn't be scared to give me your words then, right?"_ Naruto has shrugged.

"_Okay, just on a whim, I'll agree to the foolish deal of yours." _

Many things had driven Naruto that day when he had fought with Sasuke: the vow that he had made to himself to save his bond with his friend; to save the wish that both their mothers made - that they would be friends; to save the wish of Sasuke's mother, who had expressed to Kushina her wish that Sasuke become a good shinobi. And not least, Sakura's words to him just before he had stepped into the fight.

"_Promise that you will get out of this safe,"_ she had growled, eyes flashing with an indescribable emotion. _"You are way more important to m-us. If you let something happen to you, I swear I'll punch the daylights out of you …"_

Sasuke had been wild with rage when his Amaterasu failed to harm Naruto, who had been protected by Itachi's power. As Amaterasu has faded out, Itachi's image had briefly appeared to him, and had again appealed him not to follow the power-crazed Maadaraa.

"_It's up to you to chose who you want to follow now. The ones who had always cared for you; or the one who is only using you as a tool and has caused the downfall of your own clan. I really expected more from you than being a mere, weak puppet to such a man as Madara."_

It was not a defeat of Sasuke against Naruto on that day; it was more an eye opener for Sasuke, and an acceptance of what had always awaited him: his home, his two team mates, and people who really cared for him.

A month later, Naruto and Sasuke combined their forces and finally brought Madara down. That fight had been epic; wind element combining with fire, eye power combined with body power: the lethal combinations. Madara did not have any chance in front of their combined force.

Back to the village, Sasuke had to undergo the trial that had been awaiting him. The still allied force at that time had followed the trial closely, as it had been quite a controversial case. The major role he had played in bringing down Madara, stopping the war and bringing peace to the world could not erase his past crimes. He had had to face the accusation of being a deserter, for attacking the Kage summit and killing many Samourais in the action, and for killing Danzo.

Finally, the verdict had fallen: he was striped of his mangyekou Sharingan, and a bird cage seal of the Hyuuga clan was placed on him, and he was imprisoned for a year. His punishment has been quite lenient because the allied force had to grudgingly admit that without him, Madara would not have been brought down. Sasuke had willingly agreed to the verdict; he had wanted to redeem himself.

A long year later, he had finally released. It had been a slow, painstaking process to get the Uchiha to open up to his two team mates. But with the dedication of Naruto and Sakura, they reached there. The village were more willing to accept him now.

And when Naruto had announced his intention to take Sasuke as his personal bodyguard, many had openly voiced their disapproval of such decision, claiming how such a traitor could be given such an honour. But the new Hokage had not budged from his decision. Though it had shocked many, Naruto had asserted his total trust on the Uchiha, proclaiming that he knows that Sasuke would protect him with his life. And he had not been wrong.

As soon as they reached the gates of Konoha, Tsunade parted ways with them, leaving the two to make their way through the village. As usual, all the people they crossed enthusiastically greeted them; the two famous friends, totally opposing in looks and character, yet both attracting attention to the same intensity.

Naruto smiled. Life was good. He had been able to achieve most of his dreams. Now remain to woo the girl of his heart.

"What's the silly smile for?"

Naruto slid a glance across his friend. He had been thinking about dropping by the hospital.

"What's the scary look for?" he countered.

Sasuke sighed. "What are your plans for now?" he asked instead.

"I think I'll drop by the hospital."

Black eyes slanted sideways towards him. "Hn. In this case, I'll leave. I have some things to attend to."

Naruto frowned. Was it his imagination, or had Sasuke had been avoiding them the past couple of weeks? "You're welcome to come by too," he said.

"No."

"Are you avoiding us?"

"Don't be paranoid," Sasuke said lazily.

Naruto eyed him, suddenly serious. He had never dared openly asked Sasuke about _his_ feelings for Sakura. Sure, he had never showed any romantic inclinations towards her, but still, with Sasuke, one can never tell. The Uchiha was as closed as clam when it came to emotions, and things would be tricky if he had an interest in her.

"Baa-chan was telling me that it's the right time to make a move."

Black eyebrow raised questioningly.

"To find a girl," Naruto said.

"Hn. She's right."

"So, I was wondering…You and…Sakura…?"

Sasuke flashed him narrowed gaze and gave an impatient sigh. "Do you need to ask _that_?"

At the blond nervous silence, he snorted. "You know that I never had anything like that for her. She was and is just a team-mate. Nothing more."

Naruto remained silent, though he was relieved to hear that.

Sasuke the blond friend from the corner of his eyes. _Tchh..._ "You're moving too slowly. If you want something to come out of this, _do_ something. Don't just wait for things to fall into your lap. I've been making myself scarce so that you two can work things out. Make good use of it!" With the longest speech that the Uchiha had probably made till his return to Konoha, he walked away, leaving Naruto looking open mouthed after him.

XOXOX

As Naruto approached Sakura's office, he heard her clear, low grumble coming from the opened door. "Gah! Why do I _always_ have so much paperwork?"

"A better question would be," Naruto's deep, gravely voice made Sakura gave an involuntary yelp as she snapped her head up from the high pile of reports to see the blond young man propped against the doorframe, arms crossed casually, grinning widely, "why was paperwork _ever_ invented?" he finished.

"Can't you knock?" She looked like a child caught in the act of having her hand in the cookie jar. The prim and proper, meticulous medic nin did not like being caught with anything that hinted at her slacking, most especially not by their Hokage, whom she was always chastising about being too slow on his paperwork.

"At an already opened door? And miss your complaint?" Blue eyes danced in laughter at her discomfort.

"Paperwork are very important, it keep clear tracks of what is being done!" She recited what she was always drilling in his mind whenever he complained about that aspect of being the Hokage, though he delegated most of the paperwork to his two secretaries which he had recruited. "It's just that today I had particularly a lot of reports and since I took a long lunch break, I'm lagging," she grumbled, going back to her attempt to locate a specific report from the pile.

"Sakura-chaaaan, it's okay to admit that paperwork is a pain!" he chuckled, at the same time surreptitiously let his eyes drink the sight of her; he couldn't help himself. He gave an inner sigh. The more the years had gone by, the older he got, the more intense his feelings for her had become. His admiration and respect for her had only increased. Added to the mix was now a growing longing, an increasing desire for her. Physical desire. That ever present basic human need.

But he was no more that brash twelve years old boy; he knew there would be consequences to his words and action. She was probably the closest friend that he had, his most precious person, and he did not want to risk jeopardising that bond by doing anything thoughtless and rushed. Furthermore, he doubted that things would be easy, what with his rejection of her confession years back. He had been harsh, but he could not have accepted her immense sacrifice back then. It would not have been fair to her if he accepted her at that point. He had not wanted to interfere for the feelings she still might had for Sasuke, despite her saying the opposite; not when they had been so close to their aim, after all those long, hard working years to get Sasuke back. He had not wanted to be responsible for regrets she might have had if she were to discover afterwards that she still loved Sasuke, despite everything.

It had been horribly hard, holding his feelings in tight check the following years, but he had to do it; for both their sakes. When Sasuke has returned, he had patiently waited to see how things would proceed, even going as far as staying away from them for a while to give them the space needed; but she had never showed any deeper affection for the Uchiha than mere friendship. She had Sasuke within arm reach the whole time– and yet she never showed any hint of wanting to be romantically involved in him. It was a bit more than two years that Sasuke had been back now – long enough for her to have sorted her feelings for the Uchiha, and a light of hope had started to build up within Naruto. He just hoped that he was not too late.

"It's never okay to slack," her stern voice broke his thoughts.

He held his hands up. "Okay, okay, I take back what I said!" he grumbled. "So, you've had lunch already?"

"Yep. Ino and I decided to try the new Tempura house," she said, triumphantly retrieving the report she had finally managed to find.

He felt disappointed, he had been thinking about asking her for ramen.

"You should give it a try," she suggested, giving an exasperated huff at his doubtful expression. "Don't you ever get tired of ramen?"

"Sakura-chan!" he protested, as usual obfuscated on how anyone could suggest that he would ever get tired of his beloved ramen. "You know that me and ramen, it's a lifetime love story!" he said solemnly, palming his chest on his heart area, making her roll her eyes in exasperated amusement.

"At least now you do have some veggies in your diet," she remarked, satisfied that the weekly food shopping she monitored for him, since a coupe of years now, contain a variety of fruits and vegetables that she ensured he ate. She had been quite surprised when he had been readily agreeable to the new diet; she had expected a lot of grumbling and arguments.

Seeing that he was still standing by the door, she motioned the empty chair by her desk. But he shook his head.

"I'll go and grab a quick lunch."

"You haven't eaten yet?" She frowned as looked at her desk clock. It was almost 14:00.

"It's Ero-sennin's anniversary today," he explained quietly.

Her eyes immediately warmed. He and Tsunade always went to the memorial stone on the anniversary, it was a ritual neither missed. She knew how much both of them still missed Jiraiya. She crossed the office to move to his side, and gave his arm a light squeeze, trying to pass on some comfort.

"Six years already. It seems like yesterday," she mused.

"Hmm." He looked down at her, being taller than her by at least a foot now. "Time flies, only the memories remained."

"And the strength he has instilled in all of us."

Giving a sigh, he reluctantly straightened himself. "I'll leave you to your work, then."

"Hmm. Take care."

With a cheery wave, he left. She wondered whether she should have still accompanied him for lunch; but she did have lots of paperwork to complete, and a late operation scheduled. She really could not afford another break.

XOXOX

Later that day, Naruto stood at the wide glassed window of his brand new Hokage office, looking out at the village spread in front of him. Konoha, his beloved village. His love for Konoha and its inhabitants was so fiercely encompassing that he had never thought twice to invest all he had, sometimes more than he had, for them. He had never backed out from stretching himself thin to cater for everything and everyone during the difficult after-war time. And he was lucky to have a strong support from his friends, without whom he would have been surely run down by the massive task of taking over the village at such a difficult time.

His face darkened when he thought about all that they've lost during this war. He was at least greatly thankful that the major lost had been buildings; that the human lost had been kept to the barest minimum. All the civilians had been safely sheltered in the secret hideout – reason why he had allocated a handsome share of the reconstructing finance into re-enforcing the shelter again. And most of the Konoha shinobi war force still stood; he had made sure that he protects as much shinobi as he could during the war.

Amy, his secretary, a Kunoichi in her thirties, came in the office.

"Sai-san called for a meeting. He is on his way," she informed him, as he turned to look at her.

He frowned. Sai was now an ANBU captain, chief of the secret ops. His task comprised, among many others, to gather information on what was happening around in the other nations. For him to call for meeting mean that he had some serious news to impart.

"Okay, send him in as soon as he arrives," he told Amy, and she left with a nod.

He walked back to his old desk. The Hokage tower being the last building to be built, the office was still bare, saved for the old desk and chairs borrowed temporarily from the academy; he had preferred to direct the funds into more important matters. A carpenter was supposed to work on the furniture and fixtures the following week, but he was in no hurry.

Some while later, Naruto had Amy calling out some others members of the Hokage team for a meeting; what Sai had to tell was important enough to be shared with them.

Slowly, one by one, they all arrived, all greeting him by his name. It was one of the things that Naruto had insisted upon: that none of his close ones called him by the formal Hokage title. Himself having always disregarded calling the two previous Hokages by their titles, he could not digest the thought of his close friends calling him "Hokage-sama."

He looked around at his team. Among the first thing he did when he took seat as the Hokage was to build a team in which he could place his total trust, a team which he was comfortable with. The Hokage team, as he liked to call it; his most important, vital cell, which had shouldered him throughout the hard time. Not surprisingly, most the members were from the ten teams of his Genin graduation year.

Nara Shikamaru, probably the most intelligent man out there, as his intelligence ops and strategist.

Hyuuga Neiji, as his chief of defence security.

Sai as his chief of secret ops. He was shouldered by Ino, who attended meetings when he was out for missions, which was quite often.

Sakura as chief medic nin.

Sasuke, as his right hand man.

Also members of the team, though only present for more important meetings, were Kakashi and Tsunade, acting as elders and consultants. The council, comprising of all the clan leaders, still existed, though they only interfered in major decisions, same as it was with the previous Hokages.

With such an outstanding team by his side, Konoha could only shine, Naruto thought proudly.

As the initial clatter subdued, Sai was the one to open the meeting. "There had been an unusual attack in a small village found on the Kumo/Kiri border," he told the others, having already briefed Naruto.

Naruto glided a report towards Neiji, the first one sitting to his side.

"Six patrolling Kumo shinobi have been found dead. No signs of battle, and the cause of death unidentified. The attacker or attackers' target is still unknown, as the village does not hold anything of value. None of the locals are implicated, at least not yet," Sai reported.

Sakura raised her eyebrow questioningly. "What do you mean, cause of deaths unidentified?"

"All six of them had died in the same way; there were no external or internal injuries, no poisoning detected, nothing. The six shinobis just seemed to have …died."

That definitely caught Sakura's attention. "You mean even the autopsy did not reveal _any_ cause of death?"

"We do not have the autopsy report yet," Sai replied, "but the first unofficial news is such."

Sakura frowned as she looked through the report which had reached her. The autopsy must have been carried out under the supervision of Mayuri, the head medic nin of Kumo village. She knew the man personally, having worked with him during the war. He was competent, but still, Sakura find it hard to accept that no cause of death had been found. Even under the rarest Jutsu, shinobi's deaths are caused by the body failing at some sort. Shinobis were human being, after all, and the six shinobis described in the report showed that they were standard Kumo Jounins.

"Is that something to be worried about?" Naruto asked Sakura.

"_Six_ healthy shinobi cannot drop dead without any valid reason," Sakura said slowly. "Shiba Mayuri would not have missed the cause of deaths, if there would have been any."

No one even questioned the validity of the reports. Sai would have investigated the case more than thoroughly for correct info before bringing it to the meeting.

"Unless there's someone in the league of Orochimaru out there," Sasuke slowly said.

A deep silence followed his statement. That man had been able to do anything with the human body. He had transgressed all limits concerning the law of the human body. But he was dead. As was his apprentice, Kabuto.

"Six powerful shinobis dead, all at once, all seemingly of the same cause," repeated Shikamaru. "If we assume that they were assassinated, then it _is_ cause for concern. The five nations have been at peace since the war now, so this eliminates any theory of attack from a foe nation. It means there is a new enemy group, with a new jutsu which we are not aware about, or, as Sasuke correctly said, someone with the calibre of Orochimaru, out there."

An uneasiness gripped each of them.

"Such type of attack can only be perpetuated by a group," Neiji declared, as the report lied open in front of him. "For the shinobis to be attacked without any of the villagers having been aware of it – the attack must have been highly organised, smooth and swift. A single person would not have been able to achieve that. Unless someone with incredibly immense powers."

Naruto frowned. The idea of another terrorist organisation threatening the peace which they had all fought so hard for angered him. He knew that he would have to keep a close tag on this case.

"It's been two days already, and Kumo had not made any progress yet in the investigation," Sai stated. "I am working to gather as much intel as possible on that."

"I will immediately send a hawk to the Raikage. However much we would like to interfere, unless Kumo ask us for help, we cannot dip in," said Naruto, guessing that Sakura curiosity must be at the highest and wanting to have a look at the bodies herself. "Keep a close eye on this, Sai," Naruto said.

The dark haired boy nodded.

"I'll increase our patrol force immediately," Neiji announced.

No one in room contradicted him. The fourth ninja war had been instigated by a mere organisation, after all, and they all unanimously agree that it was never too careful to be on alert, however remote the probability of an attack in Konoha there might be.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:**

**_ I thank all those who have reviewed, put this story on their favorite and alert lists. **

**Writing this story is my pleasure, and every single one of you reading it is an honour, so, thanks!**

**_ This story has a reunited team 7 - very naïve of me maybe, but it's a silly fantasy of mine :) **

**XOXOX**

"Haruno-san, all three of them are stabilized now. Here's the report."

"Thank you, Yuki." Sakura took the report which her capable and efficient assistant, an eighteen years old Chunin, had handed her, and quickly scanned through it, taking notes of the regular stats; they were indeed all out of danger.

Having shortly left the emergency room found on the ground floor, they stood in the busy main hall of the hospital, while medic-nins and patients milled all around them. The day had started out very early and hectically. Sakura had been called urgently at the hospital at the crack of dawn to see to a team which had returned from a mission. It was a three men cell, and upon reaching the hospital, she found out that Konohamaru had been the leader of the team. All the three male shinobis had been in bad state, showing symptoms of severe poisoning. Fearing the worst, with the Kumo attack of the previous week still fresh on her mind, Sakura had put her whole team on high emergency alert. A team had immediately been set on treatment, while a second team set on testing the cause of poisoning by doing an armada of tests; from the stomach contents to the blood works. The tension had been paramount, the fear of an attack from an enemy slicking through the team as they've worked on the case.

The tests results had been relieving and anticlimactic at the same time: it was wild mushroom poisoning; not any dark and terrifying jutsu of an unknown enemy, as Sakura had feared. A mere wild mushroom poisoning, which could have been fatal had not been treated on time. Due to the mission being a simple D rank, no medic-nin had been assigned to the team, and Sakura shuddered when thinking about the probable outcome had they been far from Konoha. As per the written rule of Konoha since Naruto's hokageship, a medic-nin was always to be included in missions for and above C level and comprising of more than two shinobis; in this case, the team had not qualified.

The team had, from what Sakura had been able to gather, eaten some wild mushrooms picked near their camping site for dinner; mushroom which had not been edible. One of the basic things taught at the Academy was to recognize edible food and spot out the toxic ones while on missions, and to have a whole shinobi team of Chunin level going for a toxic mushroom was just unbelievable.

_How could three Chunins be so stupid?_ Sakura thought for the umpteenth times, quite irked by the incident. She could not prevent the scowl from taking over her face…Wasn't it enough that the war had taken so many precious lives, and now some _morons_ needed to have into a near death situation because of some stupid mushroom poisoning. She made a mental note to inform Iruka about increasing the emphasis on the lesson of wild, edible food identification in the academy's curriculum. She did not want to have another such case again, where their shinobis could die by such futile reasons.

Now, the worst was over, all trace of the mushroom toxins removed from their system, the proper antidote administered.

"Konohamaru? Is he all right?" Extreme worry was apparent in the young girl's high, shaky voice, as a visibly distraught Moegi rushed over to Sakura. "I just learn the news. How is he? How are they all?"

"Moegi…don't worry," Sakura said soothingly. "He'll survive." She could not help her dry tone. "He's sleeping right now."

At the younger girl's questioning look, she explained. "They ate some toxic wild mushrooms."

"Toxic mushroom?" repeated Moegi.

Sakura nodded. "Yes. The orange, inedible one."

For one second, Moegi stared at Sakura, open mouthed. Then a deep scowl settled on her face.

"Oh the Baka!" she cried crossly. "If he wasn't so intent on always being goofy in class instead of paying more attention to his lessons, he wouldn't have come to this! The only time Udon and I are not in his team for a mission and he goes and gets himself _stupidly_ poisoned!" Her voice rose in hot indignation and her face got redder.

Sakura was wholeheartedly in agreement with the girl's indignation; Moegi was voicing exactly what had been on her own mind earlier.

"Ooooh, let him wake up, I'll give him a punch he won't forget so soon!" Moegi growled, cracking her knuckles menacingly.

"His room is that way," pointed Sakura.

"Err…isn't it too early for visitors?" Yuki asked worriedly, as she watched the steaming young girl marching towards the designated room.

"Nah it's okay," Sakura smirked. "Konohamaru can have the visit of his best friend." _And the one who loves him to pieces,_ she thought to herself. She wondered when the idiot will realize that.

Pulling her thoughts back to work, she called her team of medic-nin students over for a quick summing up. "From now on, I want two people on this case," Sakura briskly addressed the young group of six standing ceremoniously in front of her. "Kira," she pointed to the tall young dark haired man, "and Yuki, you two monitor the three and check their stats every hour. The rest of you can go on to other cases now. Good job, all of you."

The team had responded swiftly and efficiently to the emergency, and she was proud of their performance; she had trained them, after all. The rest of the group dispersed, while she carried on with the briefing with Kira and Yuki.

A sudden commotion from the main entrance door made Sakura raise her head. She saw a visibly excited gathering crowding the doors - comprising of mostly the feminine staff, she noted - amidst which she saw the distinctive spiky blond hair standing at least one foot taller than the crowd and red robe of their Hokage. And some steps back, the dark head of Sasuke.

Naruto had come earlier to inquire about the three men; she had been right in the middle of treatment, so she had not been able to meet him. She had got a nurse to tell him that they were all going to be okay, and he had left, reassured.

Sakura handed the report back to Yuki. "Keep me posted on this," she told the two medic-nins, not missing the twinkle in Yuki's eyes, before she started to make her way towards the crowd.

"Sakura-chaaaan!" The deep loud voice boomed out across the hallway, making her feeling harried. He still had not get over the habit of being obnoxiously loud when calling out to her, and no-one seemed surprised by their Hokage thus seeking the head medic-nin– they were all used to it.

As she quickly walked over to Naruto, her sharp gaze noticed that he was holding his right arm up, close to his chest. And he was bleeding. That made her immediately frown.

Reaching close enough, she asked, "What happened to your arm?" Her sharp tone and piercing green eyes made Naruto involuntarily nervous.

"I'll leave him to you now," Sasuke drawled almost lazily, ignoring the almost pleading look that the Hokage was sending his way. Before Sakura could even think of questioning the Uchiha, he was gone.

"How are the three?" Naruto hurriedly asked.

"They are all fine," she snapped. "What else can be expected of bakas who have nothing else to do than stupidly get harmed?"

He cringed. _Poor Konohamaru, he's in for a good lecture when he gets better,_ he thought. _But hey, it's me I should be worried about right now!_

"And you still have not replied, what happened to your arm?" She was already pulling the appendage to have a look. She saw a small, deep wound, like a bullet hole, slightly above his inner wrist, from which he was bleeding profusely. She raised frowning, questioning eyes to his.

"Um…It's nothing, really," he said sheepishly. "It's a nail."

'Huh?"

"I was helping out with the furniture of the office."

Sakura's eyes twitched. _What was it with Konoha shinobi?_ She thought crossly. Even their leader was touched by the plague of stupidity or what? Here they were, she and her team working their souls out to save their people, and some idiots seemed to have so much fun by finding new means of getting themselves killed. Okay, getting killed seemed to be overboard – their Hokage certainly would not be defeated by such a mere thing as a nail, but still…

"And since when you've become a carpenter?" she asked almost acidly.

"But it was so fun! Sakura-chan, you should see the amazing tools that they have!" he said with a boyish enthusiasm, blue eyes shining. He followed her as she wordlessly walked towards the nearest examining room. "They have this sort of gun which fire out nails! Can you believe it? You don't need a hammer, the nails are gunned in whatever and wherever you want them to!"

She pointed to the examining table, and he meekly swung his body up and sat on it, putting his arm forward for her inspection.

"And the nail is now in your arm because?"

"Uh…it was an accident."

She huffed exasperatedly, and started to clean the perforated area to have a better look. Concentrating green chakra on her hands, she examined the wound. The scan showed a one foot length nail lodged deep in the flesh, and had pierced a secondary vein. It may look insignificant at first glance, but left alone, he would have bled enough for it to be quite fatal.

"I'll have to remove this manually," she said shortly, setting off to the side table to sterilize some tweezers.

Walking back to him, she sent him a glare. "Do I really _need_ to tell you to be more careful?" she said crossly. "Kyuubi can heal you, but can't extract things which should not be inside you!"

"It was an accident, Sakura-chan."

He looked contrite enough, the guilty blue eyes staring so earnestly back at her. Slowly, she felt her exasperation ebbed away. Who could remain immune to the entreaty of those warm, cerulean blue orbs, which remind her of the warm summer skies. She decided to let him off the hook, and set to work. Apart from a slight wince, he was silent throughout the process. When the nail was finally removed, she used some of her green chakra to heal the region, and soon enough, his auto-healing process set to work and the hole disappeared within seconds.

"Thank you," he said, as he watched her collecting the instruments.

She just waved him off. "Just be careful, okay?" she warned, and walked him back to the entrance doors.

It was difficult to miss the increased horde of female staff, from the youngest to the oldest, which had stopped or gathered in the main hall at the news that the Hokage was in the hospital, as they always did, all whispering excitedly and eyes alighting when the young, handsome Hokage waved at them.

It seemed that all the female population of Konoha had the hots for their Hokage, Sakura thought with a grumble.

"At least you've made the day of the feminine population of the hospital," she smirked. A red tinge shot up Naruto's cheeks.

"Sakura-chan, not you too!" he mumbled, embarrassed.

XOXOX

"Teme!"

"What is it now?" Sasuke did not even bother to open his eyes. He was meditating on the new Hokage tower's roof. He had allowed himself the short respite while Naruto played carpenter; after all, who could harm the Hokage in his own office, deep within Konoha.

"Can you use your eye thingy to have a look at this?"

Black eyes snapped open. A short silence followed. "No. Way. Not again!"

"Well…"

"How did you _do_ that?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "It just happened!"

"I'm your bodyguard, not your nanny! And do you take my sharingan to be your personal scan or what?"

"Hey come on, be a sport!"

"Now, you're done for. That's for sure."

"Will you ?..." Hopeful blue eyes looked at him.

"And get killed along with you?"

Sakura was busy checking a patient when a nurse hurried in the examining room.

"Haruno-san, um, it's the Hokage."

Sakura looked up, frowning and immediately worried. "What is it?"

It's been an hour since his treatment, and she had made sure his wound had been properly closed. Surely there could not be any complication from such a small wound, and so soon?

"He has been – uh – wounded again."

Pink eyebrows shot high at this. "Wounded again?" Sakura repeated, incredulous.

"Yes, carpentry accident wounds."

For a second, Sakura stared at the nurse, mouth opened. "What?" she then exclaimed, incredulous.

The nurse immediately hurried by the now nervous patient's side. "Let me continue with the patient, Haruno san, while you attend to the Hokage."

It was an unspoken rule that if head medic-nin Haruno was in the hospital, the Hokage automatically gets treatment from her.

Wordlessly, Sakura handed the stethoscope to the nurse, and sped out of the room.

Sanyu was a carpenter from a small village of the fire country; a very good carpenter he was. As many small companies, he had jumped at the opportunity to come to reconstruct Konoha. He had been honored when his modest company had been designated to finish the Hokage tower, and had been even more honored when the young Hokage had proposed to give a hand, finding it impossible to deter the enthusiastic young man from helping out.

Being mostly non-aware of the Konohan people, he could not understand why Uchiha Sasuke, which was after all the Hokage right hand man, had categorically refused to accompany the Hokage to the hospital, when the latter had, umm, run into another accident. And the Hokage had needed to be accompanied, what with the difficulty in standing straight.

"I don't have such a futile and early death wish. You go ahead by yourself," the Uchiha had flatly told the Hokage.

So, out of courtesy to the Hokage – he could not permit himself to let the Hokage go to the Hospital unaccompanied – Sanyu decided to accompany him personally.

When he saw the pink haired lady, which apparently was the head medic-nin which the front-desk nurse had hurried to fetch as soon as they've reached the hospital, he understood the refusal of the Uchiha. The young woman marching almost menacingly towards them looked _very_ scary, green eyes flashing fires, face set in a deep, dark scowl and Sanyu could swear that he could see black angry fumes escaping from her person. His first reaction as she advanced towards them was to cower behind the Hokage; but it seemed that the Hokage had the same idea, because in the blink of an eye, the carpenter found himself facing the formidable medic-nin head on, and alone.

"Hokage-sama?" The carpenter turned around nervously, only to find the young and mighty Hokage standing some steps back, peeping at the incoming scary lady.

"What happened?" Sakura barked, flashing green eye impaling both men to the spot.

"It was an accident," the poor man stammered.

"Just an accident, Sakura-chan," Naruto vigorously nodded his head.

"With?"

Naruto gulped audibly. "Err…the nail gunner."

She could feel a vein throbbing in her forehead. Her eye twitched furiously. "Narutooooo!" she growled. _Who had been stupid enough to give this dunce of a Hokage the nail gunner again?_ She thought.

Naruto quivered when he saw her clenching her fingers in a tight fist, while Sanyu finally found the use of his limbs again and had move several steps away.

"Where?" she barked again.

Naruto nervously lifted the flaps of his robe and pointed towards his upper torso. She could see blood seeping from his orange inner shirt – the wound were on his right side. She could barely hold herself from punching the blond; her fist itched to make a satisfying, chakra enhanced blowing contact on the knuckleheads' head, but remembering that he was the Hokage now, and they were in a public area, she restrained herself. She satisfied herself by giving him a whack on the arm. She hoped that none of his organs had been punctured.

"To the examination room," she told him grimly. Turning to the carpenter, her eyes flashed ominously, she growled, "You'd better make sure that your nail gunner does not get in the Hokage's hands again, understand?"

"Yes, ma'am. Of course, ma'am," Sanyu replied hastily.

Looking at their retreating back, the carpenter released a shaky breath which he had not even been aware of holding. "Is she always so scary?" he whispered, awed, to one of the nurse.

"When it concerns our Hokage's safety, yes she is," the nurse replied back.

In the examination room, at Sakura short command, Naruto was removing his robe and shirt, taking the safest approach in front of her temper – that of silence.

"I really don't need to treat you for these types of things, you baka!" Her angry glare burnt into him. "Don't you have more important Hokage duties to do, like taking care of the village?"

"Um _" he started, but she cut him off.

"How the hell have you managed to get nails _here_?" she asked incredulously as she examined him with his green chakra enhanced hands, bent over his lying form. The nails – two this time – were embedded on the side of his torso, beneath his armpits. And by sheer luck it seemed, they were buried in the flesh and muscles only; a little further it would have punctured his right lung. "What were you _doing_ with that nail gunner?" She glared at him, before dabbing some antiseptics over the wounds and getting to work.

He stuck to his best strategy of the moment; that of silence.

As she extracted the first nail, she saw that it was a headless one, which would explain why his clothes had not stopped them.

"Of all the stupid things to do," she muttered under her breath.

Though the extraction hurt a huge lot, worse than the first wound, Naruto could not help enjoying the attention and her henning. After the long years of dragged ordeal which they all had gone through, he welcomed the little lapse of normality that her scolding was bringing about. He could be called a masochist, but it gave him a fuzzy feeling when she scolded him like that. It showed that she cared enough.

And he has to admit the feeling of her warm breath on his bare skin as she worked closely to his chest was doing wonderful things to his senses. She had raised the upper part of the exam table, so her face was close enough.

"I was trying to help," he broke the silence of her ruminating as she worked. "As Hokage, I must be able to do some manual labor as well, right?" he murmured, needing to say something as he watched her concentrated face.

She gave him a dark look. "Surely you had other means to help rather than jacking yourself with nails all the time?" she snorted, as she carefully removed the second nail. The sharp pain made him wince, and he did not reply.

The two nails removed, she directed her green chakra to the wounds, inspecting for any residue. Finding none, and satisfied that the extraction had been cleanly done, she focused the chakra on the gash and started to close it.

She had lost count on how many times she had healed him since she had become medic-nin; it was far from the first time that he stood near naked under her healing hands. Yet as her hands hovered over the broken flesh, she could not help but admire the familiar but ever changing anatomy. He was so far from the young lanky boy she had started to heal, all those years ago.

Her eyes made an appraisal of the smooth, tanned skin rippling over hard, steeled muscles. No over bulging, showy muscles here, just the right amount of sleekness. He was superbly built, she thought for the umpteenth time. Nice wide shoulders and toned chest tapering into an appealing V shape.…., and there was no mistake of the power emanating from him. He was the Hokage, after all, the strongest in Konoha, so naturally his body showed it. With her face bent over him as she worked, she was close enough to have his masculine scent tantalizing her nose; warm, earthy, with a hint of ramen. She felt a delicious shiver go up her back.

_Not surprising at all,_ she thought. With all the ramen that he ingested, she was sure that he must ooze out the thing through his pores.

_Will his skin have the taste of ramen as well_…_ her thoughts suddenly screeched to a halt at the turn they were taking. _Whoa! _What the _hell_ was she thinking? She hastily snapped her thoughts back.

At the same time, she realized that she had paused in her work, and had been staring at his bare chest for she had no damn idea how long. Giving herself a hard mental shake, she swiftly straightened up, avoiding to look at him directly. She could feel a heat starting up her neck as she turned away and busied herself with the medical instruments. Her heart was pounding in her chest. _Good lord, I hope he had not realized that I was giving him a look over, _she thought almost frantically.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto looked quizzically at her.

Sakura steeled herself. "There, you are done now," she said, working hard to keep her voice even as she turned to look at him. To her relief, apart from a slight puzzled frown, he looked clueless. "And you STAY AWAY from that nail gunner, you hear me? Because trust me, if I hear that you've hurt yourself again by anything concerning furniture making, I'll tie you to a hospital bed so that you do not go near any tools at all," she threatened.

He gulped, knowing that she could well follow with her threat.

"Sakura-chan…that's pushing it a bit far," he laughed nervously. She humphed darkly.

Yuki came in the room at that moment. Sakura did not miss the slight blush that crept up the girl's face as she caught a glimpse of the Hokage's chest while he was pulling his shirt back on.

"Yes?" Sakura's voice came out unnaturally sharp, making her assistant jump in nervousness.

_What is it with us female medic-nins?_ Sakura thought almost sourly. _We are supposed to be professionals and not get swooned by the sight of some flesh!_

"Sorry to disturb you, Haruno-san," Yuki hurriedly said, "you told me to let you know immediately when the patient Ken wakes up."

Sakura nodded.

Naruto stood up. "Okay, Sakura-chan. I'll leave now."

She opened her mouth, intending to lecture him some more, but sensing it, he hurriedly cut in.

"No more carpentery for today, I swear!" he said solemnly. With a cheery wave, he was out of the room.

Sakura listened half mindedly as Yuki talked. She felt angry with herself. She had always prided herself about her professionalism at her work; when it concerns her duty as medic-nin, she always strived to keep up the highest standard possible, and her lapse just now did not please her at all.

It _must_ be the conversation she had with Ino during their last lunch which was bringing all this about, she thought grumpily. She had been feeling a sort of restlessness since that talk, which was a week ago; her nights had seemed a tad bit longer, her dreams often disturbing. It seemed that some buried feelings, which had been dormant during the war and post war rebuilding years, were being brewed up to the surface.

_Still, it does not excuse my salivating like a sex starve, crazy woman in front of some mere bare male chest_, she chided herself. Well, _his_ bare chest.

_Damn Ino_, she thought again, banging her notepad down with more force than necessary, as a last thought flitted through her mind. It being _his_ chest made all the difference.

**XOXOX**

A week later, Naruto stood at the main gates of Konoha, his red Hokage robes flowing behind him by the wind, and as usual having refused to wear the Hokage hat, his blond hair blowing freely, only held by his head band. Sakura and Shikamaru were by his sides, Sasuke discreetly some steps behind, as they greeted a Suna delegation, which consisted of Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, and a couple of Suna Anbu. Earlier that week, the Kazekage had sent a hawk announcing his visit to Konoha; his first official visit since Naruto was made Hokage. Naruto had been excited, and had been eagerly looking forward to the visit.

"Gaara!" His voice rang out with warmth and pleasure, his eyes bright as he greeted his friend.

The two young men stood face to face, savoring the moment, as they met for the first time as Kages.

"Hokage-dono," Gaara murmured, a slight smile at the corner of his mouth as he watched his friend. "You look good in the Hokage robes," he said after a short scrutiny.

Naruto grinned. "I told you we would meet as Kages not before long, didn't I?

Gaara nodded in amused agreement. "I never doubted your words," he replied calmly.

The first initial greetings from both group over, the young Kazekage turned towards Sasuke, who was standing some steps back. "Uchiha Sasuke," he greeted. Sasuke nodded a greeting back.

Gaara looked at the friend for whom Naruto had fought so hard. He was happy that the Uchiha had been given a second chance; having been himself being given a second chance, what with after spending his whole childhood blood lusting after any other human being, he felt an affinity with the Uchiha. They had both shared a past terrible dark heart, and had both been saved by the unique Uzumaki Naruto.

"Hope your journey was fine," Sakura said, the ever good hostess. "Would you like to go straight to the guesthouse, or..?"

"I'd like a short introductory meeting with you Konohan team first," replied Gaara, turning to look at Naruto.

"Let's go," said Naruto, leading the delegation towards the center, to the newly built Hokage tower.

"Managed to get your lazy bones down here this early?" Temari drawled, smirking at Shikamaru, as the two walked side by side.

Shikamaru gave a long sigh. "We were assigned to receive you guys," he said, his eyes lingering, despite himself, on the Suna Kunoichi.

Temari sneaked a glance at him. "Oh, means you wouldn't have come if it had not been assigned to you?" she taunted.

A red tinge crept up Shikamaru's cheeks. "You're too troublesome," he muttered under his breath.

Walking a few steps behind, Sakura watched the exchange with keen interest. She and the other girls of the ten teams had been madly speculating about these two since the war. It was very difficult to say what was exactly going on between them. They highly suspected that there was something, but Shikamaru had always been a clam about it, despite the ardent badgering of the girls. And since none of the girls had met Temari since the war, the few Suna visits had been carried out by the Nara himself, they could not get any info from the Suna Kunoichi. It was clear that the major obstacle of distance would impede on anything concrete to develop, and Shikamaru being Shikamaru, he would have meticulously evaluated and extrapolated all the possibilities and the outcomes; but still, the vivid chemistry between the two was impossible to miss. Sakura and the others dearly wished that something would come out of it. And now, with Temari within their grasp, Sakura intended to pump the information out of her.

It was a cheerful group which sat shortly in the Hokage's office, sharing news and having some drinks; nothing like the protocol directed, formal atmosphere that one would have expected for an official visit of the Kazekage. It was not so surprising; it was the magic of the reign of the Rokudaime, Uzumaki Naruto.

"Nice decor, nice furniture," Temari remarked, as she looked around the brand new office.

Sakura smirked. "Yeah, it comes with the added bonus of our Hokage's blood."

Temari blinked. "I don't need to ask," she grinned finally.

"Still as clumsy as ever?" Kankuro snickered.  
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto protested. "You're giving away national secrets!"

Sakura only rolled her eyes, while the others chuckled.

Soon, they settled down and discussed the schedules for the duration of the stay of the Suna delegation. Tsunade and Kakashi were to be present in all the meetings, while the council with the clan leaders was to be called for one single meeting, which would cover all the discussions that would need their input. There were many items on the agenda: bi-lateral treaties, open of trades between the two villages, and quite important in the list, discussions about the upcoming Chunin exams. The Kazekage wanted Suna to host the Chunin exams for that year, and wanted Konoha to lend their help in the events.

"Please don't forget you still have to return me the Hospital inventory report, duly signed" Sakura told Naruto, as she rose from her seat. She was the last one to leave the office. Gaaraa wanted to discuss some further things with Naruto, Kazekage to Hokage, so they two had stayed behind.

"You see what type of a slave driver I have to cope with?" Naruto told Gaara, sighing dramatically.

Sakura rolled her eyes, Gaara's lips twitched.

"You don't know the meaning of slave driving – yet, _Hokage-Sama_," she warned disdainfully.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto grumbled. He disliked it when she called him thus, and she knew that.

"See you later, Kazekage-sama," she bowed.

Blue eyes followed the alluring sway of the lithe hips with utter fascination as she made her way towards the door and out of the office. She wore a black, above knee length skirt, with side slits showing the mid-thigh length grey shorts she wore underneath, and her signature red colored top, which was sleeveless and V necked, with the white Haruno emblem at the back. The outfit flattered her soft curved, slim body to perfection and showed off her long, fabulous legs. Black summer sandals, with wide bands rolling up to above her ankles completed the wonderful picture.

"You are still staring. It's been a full minute that she's gone."

Naruto jumped, and turned to look at Gaara. He chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. Shortly though, a slight frown marred his forehead, his eyes turning serious.

"What's troubling you?" Gaara asked quietly.

Naruto did not answer immediately. He looked unseeingly into blank air. After a short silence, he said in a low voice, "I thought I had _it_ under control since long now. But I feel so like a _teenager_ again when she is around."

The young Kazekage was unsurprised. "The war is over, Konoha is rebuilt," he said simply.

Naruto looked at him questioningly.

"Life resumes from where it stopped prior to war. Your urgent issues are over now. Your mind and heart is free again."

"Still, it's so very complicated," Naruto murmured, shaking his head.

Gaara fixed his brow less eyes steadily upon him. "The Uzumaki Naruto finding something too complicated for him?"

"Would you risk facing her punches?" Naruto pointed towards the closed door. "Or worse still, lose her?" his voice dropped to a whisper, but Gaara still heard him.

"Nothing will happen if you don't take risks," Gaara calmly pointed out. "And you will definitely not lose her; your bond is too strong for that. Just follow your heart, and act on your instinct."

"You're the third person to advise me on my love life lately," grumbled Naruto. "And since when have you become an expert on such matter?" He peered suspiciously at the expressionless face.

The young Kazekage shrugged his shoulder, but could not prevent the slight blush from creeping up his face.

Naruto looked at him in amazement. "Who is it?" he immediately pounced.

Gaara avoided looking at him directly. "You will know soon enough. Hopefully," he said.

"Is it Matsuri?" Naruto pressed on. He knew Gaara had always been susceptible to the obvious admiration that Matsui, one of his very talented and beautiful Jounin, had for him.

The blush on Gaara's face deepened, confirming Naruto's suspicion. The blond grinned widely, standing up quickly and walking over to his friend.

"Well, congratulations are in order then!" he exclaimed happily, slapping the redhead on the back.

Taken by surprise by the back slap, Gaara lurched forward. He was not used to this type of casual camaraderie; only Naruto would feel comfortable enough to give him such treatments. His face brightened with a small, rare smile. "Whatever you do, don't let Temari know about it," he quickly appealed. "Not yet. She will surely try to rush me."

Naruto chuckled. "Okay, mouth zipped." Knowing Temari, he could understand Gaara's stance. "How did you do it?" he asked, still awed that Gaara had let his closed guard down enough to approach a girl.

"I followed my heart," Gaara simply said.

"Follow your heart, huh?" Naruto pondered aloud.

**XOXOX**

The tone of the gathering took a more solemn note later that afternoon, as a bigger group sat in the Hokage's office.

After the Suna group had rested, Naruto called in a meeting with Team Hokage. The Suna group had some info to impart about the recent Kumo village attack, which he felt was better to be discussed with his whole team present. Tsunade and Kakashi had already been briefed about the attack, and it was Kankuro who opened the meeting.

As per their Intel, Killer Bee had supposed to be at the small village for a local festival, but due to very last minute change, he did not make it.

"Apparently, the change of plans had been so last minute that they did not have time to inform the village leader," said Kankuro. "So, he was still expected as the festivities proceeded on."

The tension of the Konohan group sharpened palpably at this new information.

Kakashi's single visible eye was serious as he looked at Naruto. "This opens the possibility of attack being targeted at Killer Bee," he said.

Kankuro nodded. "That's what we deduced too.

"It would explain that nothing was damaged or missing from the village," slowly agreed Sai. "It was curious that with the six patrolling shinobi dead, nothing was taken or destroyed; the enemy would have had a free field. They wouldn't have met any resistance from the villagers, with none of them being ninjas."

"This leaves two possible cause of the attack," Shikamaru mused after a short silence. "It's either an attack aimed at the Raikage and Kumo, or a direct aim for the Hachibi."

"We came to the same conclusion," said Gaara. "So, if we go for option that it had been the Hachibi which had been the target, we must face the eventuality that there are some Jinchuriki tracker or trackers out there."

A heavy silence fell on the room. Sakura eyes widened at the implications. She felt a trickle of fear running down her back. _Won't this nightmare ever be over?_ She looked over at Tsunade, and could see her clenched jaw; the older woman was concerned as well.

"The Raikage had not yet responded to my message," Naruto said, his face tight. Killer Bee was a good friend, and he did not like the idea that there was someone, or several people, out on the look for the Hachibi.

"If indeed Killer Bee had been targeted, you can be sure the Raikage would have put his best team on this case," said Tsunade. "You know how protective he is towards Killer Bee."

"So, there's the possibility that Naruto could be a target as well," said Sakura, making a statement rather than asking a question as she looked from Kankuro to Gaara.

"Yes, the possibility runs high," Gaara affirmed. "The war has lifted the strict secrecy of the Jinchuriki identities, and with only two Jinchurikis left," he glanced at Naruto, "they both are easy targets now."

Neiji spoke up. "All safety measures are already in place, the Hokage would not be so easily brought down," he stated calmly. "Not within Konoha. We should as well consider measures like refraining from any travel outside Konoha; at least until all this is solved."

"It seems a good enough measure," Tsunade said, and all the others immediately nodded in agreement.

"Whoa, whoa!" Naruto protested hotly. "Calm down, guys!" He looked around the serious faces. "If you're hinting that I should miss the Chunin exams, Neiji, Baa-chan, I say no way. I refuse to be scared into hiding by some petty terrorists."

"Naruto, it's just a question of being careful, at least until this is solved!" Sakura interjected, her voice worried.

Shikamaru as well looked disapprovingly at the Naruto. "You're too troublesome, Naruto," he said in exasperation. "We should take this seriously. Why take unnecessary risks? The most reasonable thing would be to keep a low profile for the time being."

"I _am_ taking this seriously," said Naruto sharply. "Just… don't treat me like a weapon to be hidden – again."

Everyone in the room knew he was making allusion to the war, when he had been kept in secret. He had been furious when he had discovered what had been going on, and he still retain a tiny grudge for being kept away in the dark while all his precious people had been fighting to death. Everyone shifted uncomfortably in their seats, not having any comment to that.

"And anyway, this is all based on assumptions, and the Chunin exams are still months away; let's not jump the guns, should we?" he continued, in a more subdued tone. He turned towards Sai, "Try to get more clues on this new info. We _will_ follow this closely," he said with a tone of finality.

Kakashi gave a long sigh. He refrained from saying anything for the time being; knowing his former student, he knew that it would be pointless to try to convince him otherwise if he had put something in his head.

Sakura looked sideways at Sasuke, who was sitting next to her, a worried frown etched on her face.

He sighed. "What else did you expect?" he told her in an undertone as he caught her look.

"I hope all this get sorted out soon enough," said Sakura quietly.

**XOXOXO**

"Okay, we've fed you, now spill out!" Sakura demanded, green eyes wicked as she watched the girl.

Temari inspected the group of faces looking at her expectantly. "Hey, that's cheating!" she grumbled.

A day after the arrival of the Suna delegation, the girls, as in Sakura, Ten-Ten, Ino and Hinata, had arranged for a lunch meeting with the Suna Kunoichi, while the Kazekage and the Hokage were tied in long meetings for the day, and Kankuro having gone to visit their training grounds with Shikamaru and some others. The girls, having formed a tight friendship with the Suna Kunoichi during the war, had spent a great time and caught up with the last news. Now, with lunch over and all of them sipping a drink, relaxed, Temari found herself being at the center of attention.

"We'd like to know what goes on with you and that team-mate of mine," Ino said with an air of information-gathering-by-torture. "And since he says nada, we figured that _you_ would fill us in. So, out with it!"

"At least the food was great," sighed Temari, bashfully ignoring the questions.

"And?" Ino rasped impatiently.

"If you think I'm going to talk about Shika at all, you girls would wait for a very long time."

"_Shika_, huh?" Sakura immediately pounced, while Ten-Ten smirked.

"Come on, at least give us something!" wailed Ino.

Temari smiled deviously. "Well, he is _good,_" she said in a suggestive tone, twirling her drink nonchalantly; then waited for the explosion. She was not disappointed.

"Kyaaa?" Ino screeched as the implications sunk in, while Hinata blushed to a crimson red. Sakura gaped speechless at the blond Suna Kunoichi, and Ten-Ten was grinning.

"Hey, I've given you something," Temari said dryly. "You don't need to be such prudes now."

"_Our_ Shikamaru?" wondered Sakura. "Geez, our boys are definitely growing up," she groaned, shaking her head.

"You make a great couple," said Hinata, smiling shyly. "Even though Shikamaru-kun tries to hide it, you can see how much he admires you."

Ino held a sour expression. "Oh, the sneaky one," she muttered, feeling deflated that she, as his team mate, had not known anything at all about him dating Temari. She thought they were close enough that he would share something as important as that.

"Hey, whatever there is between us, it's still shaky," Temari said, suddenly serious. "We both don't know where this will go; we don't even know whether it will last up till the next time we meet, which you know is very rare. That's why we prefer not to say anything." She looked at Ino. "It's not like he wants to hide things from his team-mate."

Ino grudgingly nodded. She could understand that. "Well, you guys better give us a decent amount of notice for the wedding," she grumbled.

Temari only rolled her eyes at this. "Marriage is the last thing on our minds for the time being," she assured. "We are still struggling to get a decent schedule of us _seeing _each other."

The girls nodded in commiseration.

"Talking about marriage, have you heard that the Daimyo is expected in Konoha with his daughter next week?" Ten-Ten asked.

"Yes. So?" replied Ino.

"Well, it's being whispered that it could be about a marriage proposal for the Hokage."

Sakura chocked on her drink. "Marriage proposal for _Naruto_?" she spluttered.

Temari looked at Sakura with keen interest. "What so surprising about it?" she said. "As a single, young and hot Hokage - he's bound to attract marriage proposals from all over the nation. We have been plagued by gazillions of proposals for Gaara since he'd been Kazekage."

'Oh." A mysterious, heated discomfort gripped Sakura. She stole a glance towards Hinata. Apart from a slight blush, the Hyuuga girl appeared collected. "Well, I'm sure the whisperings are just speculations and gossips," she said firmly. "Naruto would have said something about it otherwise."

"I really doubt that he would know about it yet," remarked Ten-Ten, "knowing how clueless he usually is about these things."

Hinata chuckled softly. "Yes, that's Naruto-kun, all right."

Sakura was quiet while the others continue with their chatter. She felt unsettled by the conflicting emotions running through her. As his best friend, she should have been ecstatic that Naruto was receiving such high-class marriage proposals. She had been prepared that such a day will arrive that he would have a girlfriend, a fiancée or a wife, and she had made the resolve to be happy for him when such a day would come. So, the clench in her stomach at the news took her by surprise.

Furthermore, there was Hinata. She looked at the beautiful Hyuuga again. She had grown out of her shy stuttering, and turned into an even more stunningly beautiful young woman. If there was someone who had been highest on the list of deserving Naruto, it had been Hinata. The girl was perfect in every sense; she had always loved Naruto, and had never ever been nasty to him. Sakura had never asked Naruto about his feelings for Hinata; it was subject she had difficulty in approaching, and felt that it was up to Naruto to discuss it with her if he wanted to. But she had been sort of expecting that something would build up between the two. Now, out from nowhere, a Daimyo's daughter was just about to enter in the picture.

Catching Ino's eyes on her, Sakura hastily forced a smile and dragged her attention back to the conversation.

**XOXOX**

"It was wonderful having them," Naruto said, feeling a bit sad as he watched the Suna group disappearing from view, some days later.

Sakura and Ino nodded, while Shikamaru remained silent. The small group had come to the main gates to see the Suna delegation off. Sakura stole a glance at Shikamaru. Though he kept his face as neutral as possible, she could detect the hint of bleakness in his eyes as he continued to look out towards the already disappeared group.

"But we will see them soon," she said cheerfully to no one in particular, aiming to rise the mood of their silently brooding friend.

"Yeah," Ino piped in, catching her intention. "The Chunin exams are only two months away. We will meet them again in no time at all!"

"And what with the new trade agreements that had been settled," Sakura continued, "we should expect to see them _very_ often now."

"I'm looking forward to go to Suna for the Chunin exams," agreed Naruto, oblivious to what the two girls were up to. He did not miss Sakura's immediate worried frown as he said that. "I'm sure things will be fine by then," he told her firmly. "Now, I'm getting hungry. Let's go and have some ramen!"

Sakura sighed. It was no use debating the issue with him right now; they would have to see how things proceed in the coming months.

"Always hungry," she grumbled; then turned towards Shikamaru. "It's a good idea, though. I still have some time left for my lunch hour. Shizune will take care of things. Let's go."

Shikamaru shook his head. "I'll decline_" he started, but immediately Sakura and Ino pulled him each by an arm.

"You can postpone your sky gazing for another time," Ino said firmly. "Chouzi would be joining us as well."

"Hey, I was not going to sky gaze!" Shikamaru protested, affronted. He had given up on that hobby long ago. Well, he only did it _very_ rarely, but he was not about to admit that; it would spoil the image of the serious, responsible man that he held.

Both girls ignored him.

"Whatever it is, it can wait," said Sakura, and both girls dragged the protesting young man towards Ichiraku. They had no intention of leaving their obviously blue friend to mope alone.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto helplessly.

Naruto only shrugged. "If Sakura-chan says you need ramen, it means you need ramen!"

'I should have known you would side with her!" grumbled Shikamaru. "And you girls are too troublesome," he groaned, giving up on resisting.

Naruto followed them, grinning, Sasuke by his side.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **

**The usual thanks to everyone who have read, reviewed and faved this story!**

**Just to remind you again, the story is almost AU, and the characters are sometimes very OCC (I've tried to project how the actual teenagers would be as adult, but it is quite difficult…)**

**My apologies for the mistakes. I've re-read and rework the chapter several times, but I struggle and must have still left lots of errors, since English is not my first language.**

XOXOX

Naruto tried not to fidget as he sat facing the Daimyo after about an hour of meeting. His attention had since long been waned, as it was always the case when he was bored. It was something which he, unfortunately, had not outgrown: his short attention span when he was subjected to lengthy, boring lectures and talks. Thus, it was with much effort that he spoke all the necessary words when appropriate and expected of him, in a polite and interested manner that was befitting with a meeting with the Daimyo, while inside he was dying for this useless and lengthy meeting to be over.

Naruto had been informed about the visit of the Daimyo since a week, but he did not understand why he had been called for a meeting as soon as the Daimyo had set foot in Konoha. Usually, when the Daimyo came to Konoha, which had been only a couple of times since Naruto had taken the title of Hokage, a full council meeting with all the clan leaders was called. And due to the exact arrival time of the Daimyo being usually unknown, the meeting would have been scheduled at least one day after his arrival. But this time, the Daimyo had only asked for the Hokage's presence, which had also puzzled Naruto, seeing that there was nothing major or urgent to discuss.

Naruto had immediately called for Tsunade – no way was he going to face the Daimyo without her. She was his safeguard, to keep him in line from doing any mishap.

Now, Naruto sat, with the afternoon being almost over, listening to the useless conversation and idle chat for the past hour. The burly, regally dressed man did not seem to be in a hurry at all. He had chatted about mundane subjects ranging from politics which did not really concern Konoha, to the weather of the past year or so. The young Hokage had to curb the desire to yawn or say anything to end this meeting; but the memory of Tsunade's warning, back when he took seat of Hokage came to his mind. She had severely droned into him that under no circumstances, _ever_, was he to show disrespect to the Daimyo.

"_Our people in Konoha may look fondly to your impulsiveness and your habit of freely speaking up your mind,"_ she had told him, _"they love you, and they know your worth and are indulgent to your ways. But don't ever show such easy attitude or any type of disrespect to the Daimyo. He is the ruler of the fire country, don't ever forget that. Even if it kills you, control your impulsiveness. Think a hundred times before opening your mouth."_

So, Naruto tried hard not to give in to his impulsiveness. It was one of the downside of being Hokage, he had learnt: to be almost at the whims and beck of the Daimyo. If the Daimyo wanted a meeting just for idle chats, Naruto could not refuse him. If he, as Hokage, had jurisdiction over Konoha, the Daimyo had jurisdiction over him, the Hokage. It was a fact Naruto willingly accept, and he felt it his utmost duty, as Hokage, to ensure that the Daimyo is satisfied with Konoha. However, boring and lengthy excuse of a meeting such this one was not his cup of tea. He still wondered why the hell he had been called.

He snapped to attention as another person, a young girl, joined them.

"Please let me introduce you to my daughter, Kiyone," the Daimyo said in his high pitched voice, waving his heavily ringed fingered hand towards the girl.

Naruto looked at her. She looked to be anything from sixteen to twenty, difficult to say beneath the bulky silk Kimono and heavy make up. She was not bad looking, thought Naruto as he watched her. At least she has nothing from her heavy set, tripled chin, placid looking father; though the nobility blood was clear at the high, almost disdainful set of her chin as she greeted them. Her eyes were sharp and appraising as she gave a regal bow towards Naruto, then turned towards Tsunade and greeted her in turn.

"As we will be in Konoha for the next two days, I would like Kiyone to see around the village and learn all that there needs to learn about a shinobi village," the Daimyo said. "And I ask you, the Hokage, to please be her escort for this."

This properly jerked Naruto from his drowsy state. He stared at the Daimyo, thinking maybe he had heard wrong.

"You are the only one fitted to escort my daughter around," said the man, while with a flourish, opened his fabric fan and fluttered it over his face.

Naruto was about to splutter with indignation - surely the Daimyo realized that as Hokage, he had much more important things to do than playing the guide to his daughter! - when he felt a discreet nudge at his sides. He stole a glance at Tsunade, who was seated by his side. She gave a barely perceptible shake of her head_. _

"_Don't ever show disrespect to the Daimyo."_ Her warning came back to him. He swallowed his words, and had no choice but to nod at the Daimyo.

"Of course, Daimyo-sama," he murmured. "I'll re-schedule all my work and move all my appointments to the afternoon."

"Oh, I'm so looking forward to see how Ninjas live," chimed in the girl, speaking for the first time. "Father has told me so many things about Konoha. I've been eager to come to visit."

"It's our pleasure, Kiyone-san," said Naruto politely.

"So, that's settled then," the Daimyo exclaimed, beaming at Naruto.

Tsunade looked at the Daimyo's smugly satisfied expression. _So the rumors had been true,_ she thought. The Daimyo did have something in his mind. Naruto, she noted with a certain relief, looked blissfully clueless; she smirked inwardly.

The Daimyo looked at her with a suggestive glint, waggling his eyebrows, egging her to say something in the direction his mind was, maybe, but Tsunade looked innocently back at him, pretending not to catch the barely hidden message. She had no intention of indulging the Daimyo in this. True, she was the mother figure in Naruto's life, and right now, she would represent his family; but she would be damned if she was going to give her beloved 'son' up to a noble arranged marriage. It would have been something else if Naruto had been up to it, but knowing where his heart laid, she had no intention of participating in this. For now, let the Daimyo approach Naruto himself if he wanted to.

They were interrupted by the sudden, silent appearance of an ANBU. Naruto recognize the mask immediately; it was one of his staff at the Hokage tower. Usually, it would have been a diplomatic blunder to interrupt a meeting with the Daimyo, but Naruto had left strict instructions to be called as soon as possible if anything cropped up in the Kumo attack case. And if the ANBU was here, it would only be due to that.

"My apologies, Daimyo-sama, but I have to take this message. I left instructions to inform me immediately me only if it was a very urgent matter," said Naruto hurriedly.

The Daimyo reluctantly nodded. Naruto motioned for the ANBU to move forward. It was as Naruto as expected.

"Sai-san has arrived just now, and requests for a meeting," the ANBU whispered in Naruto's ears.

Naruto immediately turned to the Daimyo. "If we have finished here, I'll have to take my leave," he said, hoping that the man was not crazy enough to retain him any further in this senseless meeting. "I have a very urgent intel coming in, and we," Naruto turned towards Tsunade, "will need to attend to it immediately."

The Daimyo did not hide his annoyance. "I had hoped that you would have dinner with us," he said in an almost whiny voice.

Naruto retained an irritated retort. "Maybe another time, Daimyo-sama," he managed to say politely. "This is primordial – it concerns national security."

The Daimyo gave a petulant sigh. "Well, don't forget to pick Kiyone tomorrow for her visit," he said.

"Will 9:00 a.m be okay?" asked Naruto, looking from the Daimyo to the girl.

She nodded. "I'll be ready," she said.

Naruto bowed to the Daimyo, then to his daughter, Tsunade doing the same, before they both left.

"That was the most useless meeting I've been subjected to," Naruto lamented as soon as he and Tsunade was out of earshot. "And what the hell does he take me to be, his personal tourist guide?" he exclaimed, the indignation he felt in the room exploding.

"Well, he is right, in a way," Tsunade said, placating. "As per the protocol, being the Daimyo's daughter, she has the right to the highest respect of Konoha, which is you," she told him.

Naruto huffed.

Tsunade did not tell him about her suspicion concerning the possible proposal the Daimyo had in head. She thought it was better that he spend the next day showing Kiyone around not knowing about it; his usual, innocent self was the best deterrent to any possible moves. He may have grown into a heartthrob and had tons of fan girls throwing themselves at his feet, but the hectic life he had led had not given him the opportunity to spend romantic time with the opposite sex, thus he was still basically as clueless as he was as a teenager when it came to reading subtle feminine turn ons. So, unless the girl would make some heavily suggestive moves, which Tsunade highly doubted, she would bet anything that Naruto would not recognize anything amiss, if there would be.

"It was a good timing from Sai; I wonder what news he brings in," said Naruto worriedly, his thoughts already on the coming meeting, as they rushed to the Hokage tower.

XOXOX

Naruto closed the report with a snap before gliding it to Tsunade. The said document was the compiled autopsy reports of the six Kumo shinobis, file which Sai had handed him just some minutes ago, courtesy of the Raikage.

The autopsy report re-iterated what Sai reported in the first meeting: not the tiniest signs of damage to the bodies, not the slightest injuries, internal or external, and no traces of poisoning. Naruto could not make out all of the complicated medical terminologies, but at a simple summary written at the bottom of the report had concluded the deaths due to whole body failure, without an explainable cause. Naruto was by no means any expert in the medic field, but even to his limited knowledge on the subject, he knew that six young men, aging from twenty-one to twenty-seven years, as per the reports, with perfect health, cannot drop dead from body failure just like that.

And what bothered him in the report was that the autopsy had revealed the deaths of the six shinobis to be almost simultaneous. Added to this detail was Sai previous report which had indicated that there had been no traces of disturbance in the surroundings where the bodies had been found to indicate that a fight had taken place. His investigations and the positions of the bodies had made Sai had ruled out the possibility that they had been killed somewhere else and transported to the discovery location.

Naruto was suddenly engulfed by the unpleasant memories that such type of deaths was evoking in him.

"The only thing _I_ know which could caused such types of death was the Rinnegan, the Human Path which Pein used," he said slowly, a dread filling him. "The removal of the souls; which caused instant death but still leaving the body, and the surrounding, intact."

Tsunade visibly jumped, while Sai stared at him.

"Could it be, Baa-Chan?" Naruto asked softly, as Tsunade quickly went through the reports.

Tsunade frowned worriedly. "It does seem similar as the Human Path soul removing technique," she agreed. "But it's impossible that someone has got the Rinnegan. Maadara's body had been properly disposed of – we all saw to that. And Nagato's second eye as well was disposed as well." She looked at Naruto. "No, those eyes cannot be recuperated anymore," she said firmly.

Tsunade was adamant enough about this fact, so Naruto gave a sigh of relief. It was an alarming idea about an unknown foe out there using the Rinnegan. But even more alarming was about another Jutsu as easily destructive.

There was a knock at the door, and Sakura came in.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologized, as she took her seat.

Naruto waved her apologies off. "As you see, the others are not in yet as well."

"I'll not be able to stay for too long, I have a surgery scheduled in thirty minutes," she said. Naruto nodded in understanding.

Sakura frowned as she leafed through the reports. Same as the others, she found the autopsy reports baffling. She could not find any answers despite how much she racked her brains, working out all possible medical stratagems on what type of jutsus could cause men to fall dead like that, without causing any leaf to be upturned on the surrounding. The idea that even _such_ a type of jutsu exist was horrifying. The idea of having perpetror of such assignations was just simply horrifying.

By the time she had finished leafing through reports, the others had slowly fled in the office. Rapidly, they were all brought up to the latest findings. Among other things – the info given by Gaaraa had been confirmed; indeed, Killer Bee had supposed to be at that particular small village on that particular day, but had changed plan at the very last minute. Sai had also found out that the Raikage had shipped Killer Bee off into hiding, as a precaution. Most probably into another remote island.

Knowing Killer Bee, Naruto knew that he must be very miserable by this arrangement.

"And the enemy does not leave any trace," said Sai. "I've put my best men on this, myself personally doing some scouring the past week. But not the tiniest clue on their whereabouts. We have almost nothing to go about it. They've totally disappeared."

"By now, we have Suna, Kumo and ourselves actively on the look out, so it is not surprising that they would keep a low profile," said Kakashi.

Sai nodded. "Yes, they must be aware that they are being looked after. We haven't heard anything unusual again since."

The discussion continued for a longer while, but no one had any new ideas to put in. Sakura stood up.

"I'll have to leave now," she said. The thirty minutes was over, she had to rush back to the hospital.

Tsunade as well stood up. "If you don't need me, Naruto, I'll go too," she said.

Naruto nodded, since he had been about to adjourn the meeting anyway. After the two women left, Shikamaru and Neiji made to stand up too, but Kakashi spoke, making them pause.

"Are you still bent on going to Suna for the Chunin exams?" the older man asked Naruto.

Naruto sat up a little straighter, and looked around at Kakashi. His hands tightened on his desk.

"Kakashi-sensei, I still maintain my previous stance. I refuse to stay confined, scared of an unknown enemy," he replied gruffly.

Shikamaru settled in his seat again, Neiji following suit.

"Your going to Suna would be like an open invitation to make you a target," remarked Shikamaru. "I don't think the enemy would be so daring so as to invade Shinobi villages; they'll need opportunities like the Kumo incident, in a civilian only village. And you traveling would be exactly what the enemy is waiting for_"

"And maybe that's what would work," Naruto cut in. A sudden silence followed.

Sasuke stared at him. "You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, right?"

The blue eyes looking back at Sasuke were totally serious. "If we need to tackle this unknown enemy once and for all, the best, obvious way is to draw it out of it's hiding," Naruto slowly said. "If it's me they want, then they'll get me. We'll ambush them."

Shikamaru looked at Naruto incredulously. Neiji made a move to talk, but Naruto forestalled him.

"With someone having a jutsu as powerful and lethal out there, it would be in all our best interest, or I should say all of the five nation's best interest, to stop this person as quickly as possible," he said earnestly, looking around at the incredulous and skeptical faces of his team. "We just came out of a war. We've worked hard to attain this peace. We've lost many in the process. Why should we cower before an unknown group who wants to destroy this peace we have worked so hard for? We should not let them grow stronger while they are in hiding!"

"But you serving as bait is pure folly!" protested Shikamaru finally.

"You're really playing with fire," Sasuke agreed, frowning. "And I doubt Tsunade-sama and the council, in that matter, would agree to your foolish plan." _Or Sakura._ He did not say it aloud, but he was sure their teammate would not be happy about such a reckless action on the part of the blond.

"They don't need to be told that we are _planning_ to lure out the enemy," Naruto argued.

Kakashi shook his head. "Still rushing into things blindly," he sighed.

"You're the Hokage, you should not think about being a bait so easily as that," Neiji finally spoke. "As the Hokage, you have to ensure Konoha's safety first. Not to go and give yourself up so easily."

"And even if you don't like it, as a Jinchuriki, you _have_ an even greater responsibility of being ensure that some crazy, power lusting group does not get hold of you," Kakashi added. "And I doubt that you'll be able to hide such an important matter from Tsunade or the council."

"As I said before, treating me as a mere weapon and hiding me, as was done at the beginning of the war, is not the solution," Naruto insisted.

Kakashi shifted uncomfortably. "You know that was not our decision," he calmly said. "The war decisions were taken by the alliance. Tsunade-Sama was against this. We were outrun by the council and the alliance, that's all."

"But then why should I take the same path now? I won't let the council decide on my life. I have some power to decide on my own freedom, and I refused to be hidden again. And Neiji, I am not giving myself up easily! I'll have you guys watching my back!"

The group remained silent. Naruto sighed. He needed his team. He could not go through this without their support.

"Do we really want to play the waiting game?" he asked around the silent men. "For how long? If we are correct in our assumption, I'm one of the two only remaining Jinchuriki which this unknown person or group seems to be targeting. It's either me, or Killer Bee, the next target. Since I have the best team of the five nations, I say that I have the best chance to get out of this plan successfully."

Shikamaru gave a long sigh. "Naruto, you're too troublesome," he groaned, shaking his head in disbelief.

Naruto knew that he had won over the Nara. "What the use of having the best strategist around if we cannot make good use of him?" he grinned.

"There's a limit to being irrational and reckless!" Shikamaru protested, though it was quite half hearted.

Naruto looked them. "Guys, don't forget we are all _presuming_ that I'm a target for this mysterious_ new_ enemy who had attacked some _Kumo_ shinobis weeks ago. If our presumption is correct, then we already have the upper hand on the enemy," he said.

"He's right," Sai slowly said. "It's terribly risky, but it could work. I cannot find any other way other than grounding our Hokage to Konoha for the next decade for his safety. The Raikage has already exiled his brother to an unknown location again, I'm sure it was against the wish of Killer Bee."

Kakashi sighed in defeat. He as well knew that Naruto's plan looked could work. Still, he had some qualms about doing this behind the council's back. But he has sworn allegiance to the Hokage when he had agreed to become his counselor, and he knew that Naruto was stubborn enough to see through his crazy plan; so it was better that he was by his side in this.

"We'd better plan this _very_ carefully," he said finally.

Naruto looked at Neiji. "Neiji?"

The Hyuuga gave a sigh. "We better ensure that we get the upper hand on this enemy," he said.

Naruto breathed in relief.

He didn't need to ask Sasuke; he knew that his friend would be by his side, no matter what.

XOXOX

"She'll kill us both if something happens to you," remarked Sasuke later, as he, Naruto and Sai made their way to Ichiraku.

The three, being at a loose end after the meeting, had decided to have dinner together, while the rest of the group had dispersed.

"Yeah, I know," said Naruto. There was no need to ask who Sasuke was referring to. "Same as Tsunade, I don't think I'll let her know."

Sasuke smirked. "You're stupid if you think you'll be able to keep her out of the loop."

Sai smiled. It's been a long while that he had hanged around his friends. His long, frequent missions out of Konoha made that he was mostly unavailable to socialize. It was nice to be among his friends again.

"I'll do it," Naruto insisted.

Sasuke glared at him in exasperation. "Why am I letting myself be dragged into this?"

"Because you're bored," Naruto grinned. "And because you have no choice: your place is by my side."

Sasuke grumped.

Ayame beamed her usual smile when the Hokage and his two friends entered the Ichiraku ramen bar. After ordering their food, the three settled down.

"Tomorrow I have to play guide to the Daimyo's daughter," grumbled Naruto, remembering his meeting with the Daimyo earlier. "I felt as if I've been given a D class mission back in our Genin days, similar like when we had to catch Tora the cat."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "So that's all what the meeting with the Daimyo was about?" he asked.

"Yap. It was a total lost of time, talking about some far country's politics and the weather. Can you imagine it? He called for a meeting to talk about the _weather_!"

"You must always maintain a good political relationship with the Daimyo," Sai reminded him.

"Yeah, I know. But I didn't expect that having to play guide came along with the package," Naruto grumbled again.

"Surely showing such high nobility like the Daimyo's daughter cannot be that bad?" Sai asked. "Unless she is unpleasant." He looked at Naruto expectantly.

Naruto shook his head. "She seems nice enough, though she hardly talked. But still, I have much more important things to use my time for," he complained. _Like spending some more time with Sakura,_ he thought.

He had barely managed to spend a decent time with her the past week. Both of them had been loaded with work. She had taken a new batch of Genins at the beginning of the week, so she now had to teach on top of her medic-nin duties. The very little free time she had was practically non existent, it seemed. The couple of times he had managed to free himself to drop at the hospital, she had been taken in treating patients, and they could only have some few hurried words. She finished work so late at night that he thought it would be better not to retain her further; she obviously needed to have a decent rest.

"And why does she need to know about a shinobi life anyway?" continued Naruto, the day with Kiyone looming ahead.

Sasuke looked wordlessly at him, exasperated. He had a small idea what was in the Daimyo's mind; but he would be damned if _he_ was going to be the one to tell this to Naruto.

"Whatever his reasons, you better do this properly," said Sai, his face serious. "I have an excellent book about rules of courting a girl. I can lend it to you so that you have a quick look for tomorrow."

Sasuke almost did a facepalm.

Naruto spluttered in protest, "Hey, I'm not _courting_ this girl!"

Sai shrugged. He still held the habit of learning about ways in books, though he had come a long way from the cold, emotionless teenage boy that they had known when he first joined the Kakashi group.

"Still, it's better that you know," he said. "Let me run some of the rules with you." And before Naruto could place another words, he went on, "Punctuality is primordial. Don't be late to pick her up, not even by one minute. Then, since this is your first time taking her out, you could take her to a tea house as a starter; it will be proper."

"Sai!" Naruto was practically jumping from his seat. "It's just an _official tour_, not a courting date! I'll just take her to the main administrative buildings and maybe to some training grounds, that's all!"

Sai looked calmly at Naruto. "But still, it's not _anybody_ that you are taking around. You should know a bit about proper etiquettes," he insisted.

Naruto rolled his eyes, at the end of his patience.

"I have a better idea," Sasuke drawled suddenly. "Since this is an official tour anyway, why not take Sai along with you? Seeing that he seems to be very knowledgeable in such etiquettes and protocols, he will help in case you make a false step."

Naruto immediately brightened. "Hey, that's an excellent idea!"

Sai looked doubtful. "Are you sure? Won't the Daimyo be negative at this?"

"Why should he?" asked Naruto. "As far as I am along, he should not find any problem with it."

Sai accepted to accompany Naruto. He was always eager to get to know more people, and he was quite curious to meet the Daimyo's daughter, never having really socialized with such high nobility before.

"I'll read the book thoroughly again," he promised.

"And especially NO nicknames, okay?" warned Naruto. The gang had worked hard on Sai to make him give up the habit of giving nicknames to people, more so those that he met for the first times.

"I'll be within reach, but out of your way," Sasuke informed the two.

Their food arrived, and they immediately dug in.

XOXOX

"The next stop is at the hospital," announced Sai, as Kiyone emerged from the small shop in which she had been browsing while Naruto and Sai patiently waited.

The day had turned out to be quite pleasant, much to Naruto's surprise. Kiyone had turned out to be outspoken and vivacious, unlike the nobility coldness that he had been expecting.

Sai proceeded to give a short history of the hospital while they made their way towards it– he had been an invaluable help in this tour, he had given a short historic background on each of the place that they had visited, before and after war. He had not made any misplaced comment, and had been an excellent commentator. If Kiyone had been bored by the technical details, she did not show it, taking all opportunities to show her enthusiasm and gushing over almost everything.

"We can boast to have the best hospital of the five nations," said Sai proudly.

"Oh, with such a bright Hokage, it's not surprising," exclaimed Kiyone, smiling up at Naruto.

Naruto smiled back, though awkwardly. She had been doing that all the time, praising him ceaselessly.

"Oh, all the merits go to our previous Hokage, Tsunade, and her two apprentices, Shizune and Sakura," he corrected. "They are the best medic-nins out there, due to which we have the best hospital."

Kiyone fluttered her eyelashes at him. "You are being too modest," she chided.

"Here we are," Sai cut in before Naruto could say anything further. They stood before the new, impressive building of the hospital.

As soon as they entered the main entrance hall, Naruto spotted the distinctive pink hair. His face brightened, as it always did, when he saw her, the blue eyes lingering over her as she issued some instructions to a doctor.

The usual commotion at the arrival of the Hokage must have alerted her; she raised her eyes to look over at them.

"Sakura-Chan!" he called out warmly, waving his hands.

He quickly made his way towards her, leaving Kiyone with Sai. As he reached her, his eyes skimmed over her, noting the dark circles under her eyes. She had her white overcoat still on, her mask hanging over her neck, meaning that she must just have emerged from the treatment room. She nodded to the doctor, having finished with the instructions, and then turned towards Naruto.

"You look drained," he said immediately.

"Yeah, it's been a busy day," she sighed. "The surgery last night had lasted much longer than anticipated, we had some complications," she said.

It had dragged since very late in the night, and by the time she had wrapped things up, give the necessary instructions, she had almost fell off her feet.

"And I had to do the follow up treatment early since morning," she continued. _And still have tons of reports to finish_, she thought. "But the patient is fine now," she said, her face brightening with a triumphantly smile. That reward was worth any bone tiring day.

Naruto smiled proudly back. "That's my Sakura-Chan!" he exclaimed.

Sakura tried not to preen under his praise. "What brings you here?" she asked.

"Oh_"

"Hokage-sama, you suddenly disappeared!" Kiyone's complaining voice rang out, as she stepped besides Naruto. She looked at Sakura questioningly.

"Oh, sorry," Naruto apologized immediately. "This is Haruno Sakura, our head Medic-nin," he introduced. "And this is Kiyone, the Daimyo's daughter," he turned to Sakura. "I'm showing her around."

Sakura felt a jolt. The daimyo's daughter? The conversation with the girls came back to her mind. She felt a sudden rush in her ears, and she almost missed his next words.

"The Daimyo wishes her to know about the main thing of Konoha and the life of a shinobi, so we thought our hospital is a must in the itinerary," Naruto was saying.

Sakura murmured some polite words, while discreetly examining the girl. She was stunningly beautiful. There was no doubt about that. About seventeen years old, lustrous strawberry blonde hair cascading in a mass of curls down her back, grey eyes framed by unbelievably long eyelashes and finely arched eyebrow, high cheekbones, dainty nose, perfectly drawn lips, flawless skin, face artfully made up, and a dream figure with voluptuous curves at the right places. The bright blue and red traditional Kimono she wore emphasized her coloring and rendered everything surrounding her colorless.

In comparison, Sakura felt dowdy. She was suddenly keenly aware of her tired, bared of make-up, sweaty face, due to which, she was sure, her forehead must be shining in all its glory. Her hair, plaited on that day due to the heat, must looked a real mess with some of the untamed tendrils escaping. Her hospital white coat felt utterly lifeless, drab, more like a sack than an actual garment.

Kiyone emitted a tinkling laugh, her voice musically toned, as she waved her hand toward Naruto. "My father can only trust the Hokage to protect me," she said.

Sakura managed not to raise her eyebrows at this. Catching a glimpse of the dainty, perfectly manicured hand, she instinctively hid her own rough and jagged nailed hands behind the board she held.

Naruto gave a flustered smile. "You have nothing to fear within Konoha," he said. "You are perfectly safe here."

Sakura carefully watched Naruto. They had barely had time to talk the past days; they both had been busy by their respective works. She had not have the opportunity to bring the subject about the marriage proposal rumors up. He looked normal enough; a little pumped by the obvious flattering, maybe. She could not tell whether the proposal topic had been approached yet.

Sai, who had stayed behind chatting with one of the nurse, suddenly appeared, breaking her thread of thoughts.

"Hi, Ug_"

The immediate death glare he received from those green eyes stopped him on time. There was a time where he would not have had any clue and would have carried on; but Sai was a much emotionally wiser man than what he was when he freshly met Kakashi team.

"Hi Sakura," he quickly corrected. "I'm accompanying them," he said, smiling, pointing towards Naruto and Kiyone.

"Oh." Sakura felt a ridiculous relief at that, though she stubbornly refused to acknowledge it as relief.

"I was wondering whether you could give us have a tour of the Hospital?" asked Naruto.

"I'm sorry, but I'm really taken up right now," Sakura replied, though she was not sorry at all. "I'll ask Yuki to do it, if you don't mind."

Naruto face fell in disappointment, but he smiled understandingly. "Of course, you do look quite busy," he said.

Some minutes later, upon the convoke of Sakura, Yuki hurried towards them. "Hokage-sama, Kiyone-sama, this way please," she ushered them along.

Sakura watched them go, a tight knot in stomach.

"Don't worry, Ugly. I'm being a good chaperon."

Sakura jerked around to find Sai's eyes closing with a large smile. "Why should I be worried?" she spluttered. She felt a heat creeping up her face.

Sai looked at her interestingly. "You are blushing. It says in my book that one of the reasons a girl blush is out of shyness or embarrassment. So, if you are embarrassed, it means that my statement is true. You are indeed worried_"

Sakura came out of her befuddlement fast. "Didn't your book say anything about being red in _anger_?" she growled menacingly, tightening her fist.

Sai immediately backed away. He had no wish to taste her punch. "See you!" he called out as he quickly scampered off.

XOXOX

Kiyone was currently laughing at something Naruto has said, her voice tinkling enthusiastically and breathlessly, perfectly manicured nails daintily gripping the Hokage's navy, traditional kimono's sleeves which he had donned for the evening, battling her long eyelashes up at him. She looked divine in a green richly embroidered, brocaded silk traditional Kimono, her hair and face artfully made up.

It was two days after the Daimyo had arrived in Konoha. Earlier that afternoon, Naruto had come to the hospital to invite Sakura to the dinner party he was throwing in the honor of the Daimyo's visit in Konoha.

"It will be a good informal way to introduce our people to the Daimyo," he had explained. "At the same time, it will double for a celebration dinner for the new Konoha, finally rebuilt."

He had invited most of the tops of the Konoha shinobi, and of course, all his closest friends.

"Don't you think the Daimyo would have preferred to have this dinner with only you?" Sakura had asked guardedly. She was sure the Daimyo wanted to have a _private_ dinner with Naruto. She had not wanted to elaborate further, since they had been standing in the crowded hall, which was certainly not the place to discuss about any supposed marriage proposals. He had waved her doubts away.

"I want it this way – I have no fancy to dine alone with the Daimyo," he had said confidentially.

He had managed to avoid dinner with the Daimyo's family the previous night, taking the excuse of having pushed all his work to the evening to be able to accompany Kiyone. But he could not put it off for two evening in a row; and the Daimyo was to leave the next day, and had been insisting for a social evening. So, Naruto had come with the bright idea of the dinner party.

"Besides, it's an excuse to gather the friends together," he insisted.

So, here Sakura was, in a large party hall of the best restaurant in Konoha, wearing a red, floor length, sleeveless, Chinese style kimono which Ino had insisted she buy when the blond had dragged her into an impromptu shopping spree as soon as they had received the dinner invitation, her pink hair made up in a loose bun held by some senbons at the top of her head, sipping on a chilled, fruit juice which she could not in the life of her tell what it tasted like, while she watched their Hokage being flirted on. And what an obvious flirting it was.

There has been a big jump from yesterday to today, thought Sakura as she watched the familiarity with which the girl was holding Naruto's arm, the almost suggestive way she was looking at him. She wondered, with a sudden shakiness, whether the proposal had already been put forward. If it was the case, Naruto did not seem negative about it.

The forty guests or so were standing around, chatting and sipping some drinks, while waiting for dinner to be announced. The clan leaders were present, as were the captains, the most eminent Jounins and the whole gang of their friends. Each of the Shinobi present had been introduced, in turn, to the Daimyo, who sat at the head of the room, his wife at his side, while Naruto sat with Kiyone by his side.

"Hokage-sama, you are so funny!" the young girl squealed for the umpteenth time, leaning towards the blond, her voice carrying to where Sakura was.

Sakura unconsciously gritted her teeth. She could almost see stars shining in the young girl's eyes, who had been hanging all over Naruto the whole time. _Wasn't nobility supposed to be more contained, more regal?_ Sakura thought cattily, though carefully avoiding to ponder on her being so riled up at the girl's heavy, oh so obvious hitting on the Hokage. And it was another matter that their Hokage did not seem to be minding the attention at all, a large smile plastered on his face. _Why should he, anyway?_ Sakura thought darkly. Which man would not be enticed by such a beautiful, and obviously _interested_ girl.

She tried not to look in their direction; which was proving to be difficult, what with the tinkle voice ringing out each second and the bright green Kimono standing out among the guests. And Naruto never went unnoticed, anyway, as usual. Put him among a hundreds, he would still stand out; he always had that strange power.

Sakura resolutely turned her back on the couple, looking instead at the silent man sipping his drink besides her. "Please tell me that I wasn't that bad," she groaned in a low voice, as another peal of girlish laughter rang out.

She needed to say something, otherwise she felt like she would explode. As response, she got a smirk; meaning yes, she had been as girlishly star-struck as the girl. She felt like banging her head against a wall in mortification.

"At least you had a valid excuse," Sasuke drawled.

She raised her eyebrows almost apprehensively at this, waiting in silence for the Uchiha to elaborate.

"You were twelve years." A tiny hint of amusement could be seen in the black eyes.

A heavy sigh escaped her. "I really should apologize for all the trouble I was back then."

"We were all kids," he shrugged.

"She sure is not a kid," she said waspishly, looking towards Kiyone, forgetting her resolution to not look towards the couple. Those voluptuous curves were anything but kid like.

Sasuke looked at her, eyes narrowed.

"What?" she almost snapped, unnerved by the thorough scrutiny.

"Your reaction to _her_ is interesting," he drawled, the black eyes calculating.

She sent him a death glare. She had enough self-analysis to do and having him cross analyzing her reactions was the last thing she needed.

"Uchiha, if you want me to forget that you tried to ram a weapon in me twice, you'd better drop the direction your thought is taking."

He grunted.

A few minutes later, Ino joined them, followed by Ten-Ten and Hinata. Greeting the girls, and murmuring an excuse, Sasuke quickly eclipsed away.

"Still uncomfortable around girls, isn't he?" Ten-Ten remarked.

Sakura smiled ruefully. "He has never been a social butterfly," she chuckled. She could see Chouji talking with Lee, Sai, Neiji and Shikamaru in a corner.

"So, managed to let go of the fiancée of yours finally, haven't you?" she teased Ino.

"Well, I had to clearly stake my claim on him," Ino replied snarkily. "What with such a Femme Fatale around."

"She is quite something, isn't she?" Ten-Ten whispered, looking across the room as yet another laugh from Kiyone tinkled out.

"Yes, she is very beautiful," agreed Hinata quietly.

Sakura looked at the Hyuuga girl, who looked stunning in a floor length lilac dress, her lustrous black hair shining down her back, the perfect, white skin enhanced by the hue of her dress. She could only marveled at how calm and collected Hinata looked, every inch the classy, beautiful and poised princess that she was, kindness and gentleness oozing out of her.

"Hinata, _you_ are even more beautiful!" she whispered almost vehemently.

Hinata looked at her in surprise, while a faint blush crept up her cheeks. "Thank you, Sakura," she murmured, smiling shyly. "You look beautiful too." Her eyes held a knowing expression which Sakura could not understand, but before she could ponder on it, Tsunade came to join their group.

"Quite a party, huh?" the former Godaime smiled cheerfully, a glass of sake in hand. The others nodded. "We managed to get the Daimyo to contribute to it," she said, with a devious smile.

Sakura shook her head. She'd better not ask how her Shishou had done that.

"What do you think of the girl?" Tsunade asked Sakura abruptly, in a low voice that the others could not hear.

"Huh? The girl?" stuttered Sakura, taken by surprise.

Tsunade pointed her chin towards Kiyone. "The Daimyo's girl," she said, watching Sakura closely.

_Why this question?_ Sakura thought. "She's ok," she forced out after a pause. What else could she say?

Tsunade looked satisfied. "Hmmm."

Before Sakura could query why the question, the older woman had waved cheerily and moved off to another group, leaving Sakura perplexed.

A while later, Sakura strolled out on the terrace which gave on the back garden. She leant forward against the wooden rail; the warm summer air, sweetened by the scent of fruits, tantalized her nose as she took a deep breath. The slight cooling breeze fluttering on her face was soothing and she felt some of her tension smoothing away. Dinner was over about half an hour ago, but the party was still going on, people still chatting and enjoying each other's company – it's been a long time they have such a gathering.

And Kiyone was still flirting heavily with their Hokage. No announcements had been made, though, as per the speculations which Sakura's wild imagination had been conjuring up.

A troubled frown marred her face as Sakura managed to get a grip on her raging emotions and tried to rationally evaluate her own reactions at the sight of the young noble lavishing her attention on Naruto. She did not like that she was feeling so geared up like that; she felt so _weak_. She has been on edge since the previous day when Naruto had come to the hospital with Kiyone; her night had been lousy, tossing about in her bed, sleep eluding her until the wee morning hour, her imagination running wildly ahead of her.

No, if she was honest with herself, weak could not even describe how she felt. She felt like smashing some walls, taking down some buildings, digging out some craters; _and scratching out some grey eyes_.

There, she had admitted it. She was feeling _very_ bothered at the sight of Kiyone being with Naruto, holding his arms and draping herself over him all the time. What she felt when she saw the girl hanging all over Naruto made the rivalry which she used to have with Ino seemed tame.

_Grrr_… she gave a tortured, exasperated huff. She was very unhappy about what she was feeling. It was as if she was retrograding again to the emotionally-directed girl that she had promised she would never be again. All the emotional defenses that she had so painfully and carefully built were slowly crumbling around her, and she was scared.

Would she feel that way at every girl who would give Naruto some attention? God knows he really deserved any loving attention he gets. And where the hell would this feeling of …rage - she refused to call it by any other name - lead her, anyway. She and Naruto…how can it ever be?

_And where did Hinata fit in all this?_ She asked herself again.

"Here you are, I was wondering where you've disappeared to."

Sakura jumped and wheeled around, as the one of her thoughts walked through the large sliding doors. Naruto bore a wide grin as he moved besides her, leaning forward and cropping both his elbows on the rim of the balustrade. She looked at him. He looked _cut_ in the traditional kimono, the draped garment suggesting rather than showing his powerful physique, the navy color making his eyes appearing darker, more mysterious. More predatory. She swallowed.

"What's wrong with Hinata?" she blurted, a little more belligerently than she intended.

"Huh? What's wrong with Hinata?" Eyebrows slammed in a frown, he immediately straightened himself and looked with urgent concern towards the inside of hall, where Hinata had been earlier.

"No! Nothing has happened to her," she said hastily, and he turned back to look at her, puzzled. "I meant, if you are so bent on marrying into nobility, why don't you choose Hinata?"

His eyes widened in surprise.

Before he could say anything, she hurried on, "She has always loved you, from far back when all of us used to look down on you. She has _always_ treated you right. She's very beautiful, kind, sweet, strong, perfect, and she did not think one minute about sacrificing herself for you during the Pein fight…So, why?"

Sakura felt she was trespassing onto dangerous territory, but she could not stop herself. She had never dared ask him the question. But they were best friends, surely she could ask? And she wanted to know.

Remorse was apparent on his face as he looked down at his feet. After a silence during which Sakura quivered in uncertainty, feeling that she had indeed cross a boundary, he looked up at her, eyes guarded.

"I don't lie to myself, Sakura," he said softly, face serious.

Her breath hitched silently. Those words…they evoked some painful memories.

"Hinata…I'm really very honored that a girl like Hinata has such feelings for me," he said in a low voice. "And I truly regret that I can't give her what she wants."

Sakura watched him, unable to say anything.

"I'm not in love with her," he continued. "I have high respect for her, for the person she is, but I don't love her _that_ way. It would be unfair to both of us if I get with her, feeling the way I do. It would be out of _obligation_, and she deserves much better than that."

She opened her mouth; then closed it again, not knowing what to say.

"She was hurt when I told her years ago, but she understood and accepted my decision," he said.

Sakura was surprised. She had never known that he had such a talk with Hinata. A heavy silence descended between them. She did not know what to make of all this; and she dared not probe deeper. She suddenly felt vulnerable, her stomach churning. Not liking the feeling, she went into her defensive mode, and glared at him.

"So, are you trying to say that you are in love_ with her_?" she almost snapped, pointing her chin towards the Kiyone.

The heavy atmosphere immediately dissipated at her waspish tone. He looked flabbergasted. "Huh? Where does that come from?"

"You seem to be positive about the proposal!" She could not prevent the accusing tone of her voice.

"…! Which proposal?" He looked genuinely mystified.

She suddenly felt some misgivings. Maybe the proposal had not been put forward yet? He looked questioningly at her, expecting a reply. She shuffled uncomfortably, suddenly feeling very stupid about her outburst.

_Why the hell didn't I hold my tongue?_ She thought desperately, regretting her lack of control. The silence stretched, as he continued to watch her expectantly.

Aware that she should say something, she took a deep breath. _They were best friends, dammit, she should be able to discuss such things surely, as friends? - _was her brave thoughts as she started, quite subdued, "Well…there's this info…" She haltered.

"Info?"

She glared at him for the interruption. "Well, there was the…_word_ circulating around...that the Daimyo wants to propose his daughter's hand to you."

"Ah."

She frowned. _That's it?_ She would have expected a more surprised reaction, had he been totally ignorant of the supposed proposal. She became aware of the teasing glint in his eyes, and she immediately bristled.

"_And_ seeing the way you were fawning all over HER_"

"Was I really?"

"_it's natural to assume that you are seriously considering_"

"Don't you know it's dangerous to assume, Sakura-Chan?" The blue eyes were practically dancing with laughter now.

"_the proposal!" she finished, a vein tickling on her forehead by then, and her eyes flashed angrily at him.

He watched her, a small smile tugging the corners of his mouth, merry eyes boring straight into her. Suddenly, he scrunched his eyes, bent his head forward and peered closely at her face, still not saying anything. She hurriedly took a step back, her eyebrows shooting up.

A large, satisfied grin broke out on his face.

"I'd say that you are JEALOUS, Sakura-Chan!" he finally said.

"…What?" she sputtered, her eyes widening.

He nodded his head solemnly. "Yes, you are."

Her jaw was practically hanging down. "I'm NOT!"

"Then why are you blushing?"

"Because…because your statement is OUTRAGEOUS!"

"Is it? If so, why haven't you punched the daylights out of me yet?"

She looked at him incredulously. "You want to be punched?"

"Well, if I was so off-target, I would have been punched halfway through Konoha by now."

_Since when has he gotten THAT smart?_ she thought, agitated. "I can't punch you here," she growled.

"Why is that?" he asked curiously, taking a step towards her, head cocked to one side as he interestedly wait for her reply.

She took another step back, only to find that her back was already pressed against the rail. His proximity and low, suave voice were doing strange things to her; like turning her feet into jelly.

"You know why! Because you're the Hokage!" To her horror, her voice came out squeaky-ish.

"Oh? And that would stop you?"

"We are in public! The Daimyo?" She desperately tried to formulate coherent phrases, as she looked, mesmerized, at the blue eyes, finding it unable to tear her eyes away.

He did not reply, instead, watched her intently. The noise around them suddenly zoomed off. Her heart rate speeded up, her breath shaky. She swallowed nervously, and his eyes moved to her throat, seeming equally entranced.

"Naruto-kun!"

They both jumped at the voice.

Shizune smiled, clueless, at both, not noticing the charged atmosphere. Sakura dazedly surfaced from her stupor, blood rushing into her face.

"Tsunade-sama is looking for you," the black haired woman told Naruto.

Naruto took a step back, scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. His cheeks were ablazed, too.

"Okay, I'll go and see her," he said, and with a nod at both of them, he left.

_What the hell was that all about?_ Sakura thought, still shaky.


	4. Chapter 4

**Once again, thank you all so much for reading my story!**

XOXOX

The Hokage, flanked by Sakura and Shikamaru, and a few steps behind, taking his time, Sasuke, walked through the new building of the Konoha Ninja Academy. An almost religious silence reigned as the group walked through the corridors, their footsteps padding silently on the polished floor. The classes was in full swing judging by the closed doors on each side of the wide corridors and the soft rumble of adult voices, presumably the teachers, talking behind each doors.

The small group was at the academy to meet the four teams of Genins which had been selected for the Chunin exams. The exams being only a month away, it was time for the Hokage to meet the group which would travel to Suna. It was the first Chunin exams to be carried out since the end of the war and since Naruto's ascension to Hokage, and being a bit nervous at facing students in such a formal capacity, he had requested that Sakura and Shikamaru accompany him, with Sasuke, as usual by his side.

Sakura had made arrangements with Shizune to replace her at the hospital for the hour off that she had taken for this meeting. She could not prevent the nostalgic smile as they walked through the school environment, her childhood memories creeping up on her. It was a good change being away from her hectic hospital duties and class schedule. She practically lived at the hospital these days. She went to her apartment only to drop her tired body on her bed, only to wake up early the next morning to restart another busy day. She was lucky that from times to times, her mother dropped prepared meals for her; otherwise she would have been living off outside food. She had got her own place at the end of the war, and she cherished her independence; still, it was great to be still pampered, when needed, by her mother.

"Wow, being at the academy sure brings on memories," murmured Naruto. Even though the building was brand new - the setting different from the old one - the solemn, studious vibe clinging in the air was the same as their old academy.

Shikamaru and Sakura nodded, smirking, while Sasuke got brooding.

"Sure it does," sighed Shikamaru.

They reached near the end of the corridor, and the silence was suddenly broken by a faint ruckus of voices coming from a nearby class. A grown, male voice was speaking loudly, trying apparently to calm the noisy, young voices coming within. The little group curiously walked by the class, which had its doors opened, and by the look of the students within, they deduced that they were the first years. As soon the Hokage and troops walked by, the whole bunch of seven to eight years olds excitedly scrambled from their seats to pile the door, to have a better look, while their teacher tried in vain to get them to return back to their seats.

"Look, it's the Hokage!" was the excited whispers.

Naruto obligingly stopped and greeted them, causing the squeals to go louder.

"They sure look tiny," remarked Shikamaru, looking down at the children from his height. And to think that next year, Shiro, his Godson and Asuma and Kurenai's son would start at the Academy too.

A particularly miniscule boy pointed at Sakura. "That pretty lady is the head medic-nin," he told his awed-struck friends importantly. "I know, because my Dad works with her," he said proudly.

"She sure is very pretty," exclaimed, awed, another equally miniscule boy.

Naruto grinned appreciatively. "They have good taste, these lads," he said, winking at Sakura.

She only rolled her eyes at him; though she made sure to give the little boys an extra sweet smile. She was human, _and_ a girl, after all; she was susceptible to any compliments, especially from males. Even twerps ones. It made her think of another twerp of her class, who now had grown to at least one foot taller than her.

She stole a glance at Naruto. The outcome of the Daimyo's visit was a total, impenetrable mystery. It's been almost a week since the Daimyo and his family left Konoha, but nothing had transpired as to what had been concluded regarding the supposed marriage proposal. No announcements had been made, no clue leaked out. Speculations had been running wild as to what might have happened, and Sakura was one among those who was unbearingly curious about the outcome of that visit. She had been discretely poking around for information, but she had not heard anything from the major grapevines. The one and only time she had casually, with carefully worked disinterest, started to question Sasuke in that direction, the Uchiha had immediately spotted her maneuver and had smirked so pointedly at her that she had immediately given up. Even Ino, the eternal gossiper and source of information did not have any news to impart about it, neither did Ten-Ten.

Despite her itching to know what had happened Sakura had categorically refused to approach the subject with the main concerned party. She did not want her blond former teammate to have a reason for teasing her again; not about this subject, not from him. She certainly did not want to provoke a repeat of the incident as that of the dinner party.

That little episode on the terrace was behind them, much to her relief. In the light of the next day, when her old rational self had been at force, she had chalked the overwhelming emotions which had engulfed her during that short instance as due to the party atmosphere, the intimate setting of the terrace, and her confusion of the moment. In her normal, usual routine of her daily, and especially with Kiyone out of Konoha and out of sight, it was easy to be convinced that she had overreacted during that brief episode. She was greatly relieved that she and Naruto had fallen back into their comfortable, friendly pattern. Naruto had been his usual bright, teasing friend when she met him, albeit very briefly due to their hectic schedules, the days following that incident.

The Hokage and his group left the first years, after Naruto pseudo-sternly instructing them to obey their teacher, to shortly reach the room where the selected Genins and their respective teachers awaited them. Iruka was the one to open the door to them.

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto greeted warmly, as the dark haired now headmaster of the academy ushered them inside. Their rapport was still as warm as ever, and they always made it a point to share a meal – ramen at Ichiraku - from time to time.

"Hokage-sama," Iruka replied back. He had insisted that he called Naruto by his title when at the academy, despite Naruto's protest. _"I must give good example to my students,"_ he had argued.

The din of voices immediately stopped as Naruto stepped in front of the class, and a chorus of "Ohaiyo, Hokage-Sama!' greeted him. Sakura, Shikamaru and Sasuke discreetly stood at the sides, along the four Jounins teachers who anxiously looked upon the students.

Naruto looked at the twelve youths facing him, four girls and eight boys, their faces eager and awed. He had already gone through their files prior to coming to the meeting, and what he had seen had impressed him; they were all very good. They were so young, yet he could see a determination on their eyes already. Sakura recognized four of them, two girls and two boys; they were her medic-nin's class at the hospital.

"Before I start, feel free to ask any questions," Naruto invited the young Genins.

Immediately, all the hands pointed up, and without waiting to be told, a bold looking boy spoke asked:

"What sort of student were you? Were you the brightest in your class?"

Naruto chuckled. Sakura, Shikamaru and Sasuke smirked.

"No, I was certainly not the brightest in my class," said Naruto. "In fact, I was the least bright of my class. And I got where I am today with lots of hard work, the Will not give up, the right motivations and lots of supports from my precious people."

The group listened to him, awed, hanging to every word. Following that, a series of questions about his Jutsus were shot at him, to which he replied as best as he could.

"Did you have a girlfriend back in the academy?" asked black haired a girl, two spots of pink on her cheeks as she looked at him with stars in her eyes.

Naruto smiled. "I used to like a girl," he replied, not elaborating further. Before she could ask anything further, another girl spoke out.

"Do you have a girlfriend now?" she asked, her cheeks equally pink.

Naruto paused. "No."

"Why?" asked a third girl.

"Yes, why?" echoed yet another girl, eyes wide opened in keen interest.

An excited murmur went around the class; whispers of "He's still single!" were heard.

"Err…" Naruto looked helplessly at his friends, feeling harried by the sudden questions concerning his sentimental life.

Seeing the obvious discomfort of the young Hokage, Iruka immediately moved forward. "Settle down now, class!" he said in a firm, authoritative voice.

The clamor of voices immediately quietened. Iruka might be more quiet-spoken than most Jounins, but the years at the academy had toughened him up, instilling into him the experience to deal with difficult students. He has had the most rowdy of them all, he thought with an inner smile, with the Rodukaime in mind. Sakura, Naruto and Shikamaru looked at their old sensei in admiration as the students meekly waited for their headmaster to proceed.

"Now the Hokage will address some words to you," he announced.

"Thanks, Iruka-sensei," Naruto whispered from the corner of his mouth. He looked back at the group of Genins, the whiskered face serious and solemn.

"You are all on the brink of crossing a major threshold of your Shinobi career, that from Genin to Jounin. To help in that endeavor, I will pass on the message that the Sondaime gave to me while I was a student."

"Hashirama Senju, the founder and first Hokage of Konoha, based his rule on his life philosophy which he called the Will of Fire. The Will of Fire' states that every true Konoha shinobi must love, believe, cherish and fight for the village's sake, as many previous generations had done before them."

"The Will of Fire is what gives the shinobi the strength to continue fighting against all odds, building willpower and strength of character. It is also symbolic of the hopes and dreams of the previous generation being passed to the next."

Naruto looked at the solemn, silent faces turned up at him.

"We, as I, the Hokage, and all those of and above my generation, have worked hard to bring peace to this world. We have learned the hard way that hatred brings pain, and we make the promise that we will always give our all so that you, the coming generation, will always have a hate-free world to live in. You, in return, must find your Will of Fire to protect this peace that the previous generation has worked for."

"Do your best in the exams; give your all to become proud Chunins of Konoha."

A deep, serene silence welcomed his words. The Genins all stood, straight and proud, watching their Hokage with unbound admiration.

Sakura looked at the blond, her chest swelling with emotions. His initial nervousness to face the students was so futile; he was a natural when in need of inspiring people. He looked so right, so _Naruto_, in that place, giving this speech. She could not imagine anybody else being where he stood.

_And we will always give our all to protect you, Naruto,_ she thought fiercely, reiterating the pledge she had made to herself years back.

Iruka looked on upon his old student, the usual proud smile adorning his lips. Even Shikamaru had a wondered smile on his face.

A while later, the group left the academy.

"Anyone fancy Ramen?" asked Naruto cheerfully.

Sakura shook her head. "I can't, I have to be at the hospital," she declined.

Shikamaru was not to keen for ramen, but he knew that it was impossible to convince Naruto to have something else. "Why not?" he sighed.

Sasuke silently walked alongside the two as they made their way to Ichiraku, after Sakura had left them.

XOXOX

Sakura was instantly awake at the sound of the noise. All her senses became instantly alert – she was not a shinobi for nothing – and darted a glance at her bedside clock. 5: 45, it read. She listened intently, then, it was there again, a sharp _Crack!_ which appeared to be coming from the sliding doors leading off to the small balcony attached to her bedroom.

Swinging her legs out of her bed, she swiftly grabbed the kunai which she always kept by her night stand, and in a silent bounce, she jumped over to the doors. Since it was hot these days, she had left one of the panes opened to let some cool air get in. She could not sense any chakra signature in the immediate vicinity; so, she carefully poked her head around to try to get a glimpse of what could be further out there. The dawn light was enough for her to see, and not finding anything suspicious, she took a step closer and carefully stretched her neck to look outside_

_and was almost seared by an incoming, small projectile.

"What_?" She could not help the slight yelp from escaping her – some ninja she was – she thought immediately, catching herself and gripping her Kunai in her hands.

"Oops! Sorry, Sakura-Chan!" came a cheery, very familiar voice from below.

Her apartment was situated on the first floor of an elegant, one storeyed building, and the voice was coming right below her place, from the small dainty garden attached to the building. Quickly checking her attire, and satisfied that she was presentable – the mid-thigh length white cotton shorts and matching spaghetti strap top was more a comfort wear than seductive - she moved outside to her balcony, and peered over the railing. Looking up at her and grinning so brightly that she could see his white range of teeth in the semi darkness, stood their Hokage, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

She stared at him blankly. "Naruto?" She called out uncertainly.

"Sorry for that," he exclaimed apologetically. "I was aiming for the closed door," he said, as if it could explain his presence below her balcony, at such an early hour of the morning, on the precious half-day off she had managed to bag after _ages_.

Looking back on her bedroom floor, she saw that it was a pebble that had almost hit her head. She turned back to him, annoyed.

"Why are you throwing pebbles at my door at this hour?" she grumbled loudly enough for her voice to reach him down below, relieved that she was not under attack; though who would want to attack her anyway.

She noted that he was wearing a casual jog pants – orange colored, of course, she thought with an eye roll – and a black T-shirt, instead of his Hokage robes.

"I've come to fetch you for some training," he called out. "It's long since we've trained together, and I've already booked ground 50 for the whole morning."

Ground 50 was the largest and furthest training ground, which usually suited them due to her monstrous force which tends to do quite a lot of destruction, and him needing the wide space to practice his Hirashin Jutsu.

"Naruto! It's my half-day off, I want to have a sleep in!" she protested half heartedly. Though the idea of training was appealing; it's been very long since she has had a proper sweat inducing training, due to her hectic days at the hospital. But at the same time, she very much deserved a proper rest; she was always finishing at the wee morning hours, these days, she barely had the luxury for relaxing.

"Come on lazy bones! I would like a partner, and a good training will do you some good."

"Why don't you ask Sasuke?"

"He prefers to meditate at this time." He gave her his best convincing smile. "Come on, Sakura-Chan!" he coaxed.

She suddenly realized their ludicrous posture. She felt as if it was a scene from Romeo and Juliet, what with him pleading under her balcony. Save for her sleepwear and his casual attire, of course. And that she was certainly no Juliet; and he certainly no Romeo. And he was certainly not madly in love with her. Feeling that her mind was digressing, she shook her head briskly to clear her thoughts.

"Come on!" he urged again.

She was glad that it was still very early in the morning and that none of her neighbors were up yet to witness their mighty Hokage pleading to her under her balcony; but if he continued shouting like that, they sure would wake up.

She gave a sigh. Seemed he would not take no for an answer. As usual.

"Okay, give me a minute," she called down, and turned to go back in her room; but not before seeing his bright, happy smile.

"Baka – you are the Hokage now! You shouldn't be shouting under my balcony," she chided him a short while later, as they made their way to the training ground. "You've got to keep up the image!"

"Sakura-Chan, becoming Hokage doesn't mean that I should lose connection with my precious people," he protested, glancing sideways at her.

She had changed into a sleeveless grey tunic, reaching down to the top of her knees, two slits at the sides revealing her usual black tight shorts, her face, as usual, devoid of make up and hair tied into a high ponytail. And looking hot, he thought, furtively admiring her svelte form.

She hmphed, not having anything much to reply to that.

"How come you have so much free time these days?" she asked after a short comfortable silence, as the two made their way through the almost empty streets towards the training ground.

"Huh?"

"I seem to be seeing you around a lot lately," she pointed out. They had been having lunch together, along with Sasuke, almost daily the past couple of days, since the meeting with the students at the Academy, days. Plus he had been dropping at the hospital quite often; albeit short visits, most of the times for idle chats, since they did not have time for any lingering moments anyway.

"I always see you a lot!" he protested.

"But still a lot more the past couple of days," she insisted.

"Hey, I'm not slacking, if that's what you are implying," he said defensively, scratching the back of his head.

"It's not what I was implying," she hastened to say. "I'm glad you are taking some time to unwind." She smiled softly. "God knows you need it." She was on top to know how he had worked himself to the ground these past years. And since their had been no news from the Kumo attack, he did deserve a respite.

"So are you complaining about my visits?" he almost pouted. Thankfully he had given up that habit, she thought.

She gave an exasperated sigh. "NO!" she said, glaring at him, annoyed. "Let's forget I said that, okay? You _know_ that I'm glad of your drop-ins."

"Are you really?" He perked up, smiling brightly at her.

She mutely rolled her eyes at him.

They had neared their allocated ground. Suddenly, two green blurs flashed past them.

"We should have expected them to be here already," Naruto chuckled, watching Gai and Lee sprinting by. The green clad duo reached a distance, literally braked; made a turn about and sprinted back towards the two.

"Naruto-kun! Sakura-san!" Lee exclaimed, stopping a few steps in front of them, while Gai followed a few steps back.

"Is the Hokage going for training?" asked Gai, his face eager.

Sakura could almost see drool oozing from the two training-addicted Jounins. She and Naruto shared a consulting look, and came to a silent agreement, grinning.

"Would you like to join us?" Naruto suggested.

The two black haired men beamed. "Yes!" they yelled in unison. "Let the flame of youth burst forth!"

XOXOX

Two hours of excellent Taijutsu sparring, a crater-littered ground, and some splintered trees later, Lee and Gai departed. It was barely nine O'clock, and Naruto decided to hang out a bit longer. He had already made arrangement with his secretary to look after things as he had planned to be late in office for the day. Sakura agreed to stay – she did have half day off, after all.

The two dropped their bodies on the soft grassy bank of the little stream situated at the edge of the training ground, panting and slightly battered.

"That was some great training," enthused Naruto. "That punch of yours only gets more frightening with time."

She had managed to land some punches on him despite his speed. Sakura beamed under his appraisal. It meant a lot to have his approval.

"And your Hirashin Jutsu is still amazing to see," she replied, smiling.

"It's hot. Fancy a dip in the stream?" he suggested, pointing towards the shallow stream.

"No, you go ahead." She preferred lying on the cool grass to catch her breath.

He swiftly discarded his sandals and T shirt, the orange sweat pants fitting smugly on his hips, and sped towards the water, which reached up to his waist. With a splash, he plunged in, throwing a shower of water around, letting out a loud yell of joy as he did so.

Sakura smiled at his antics. He might be the mighty Hokage, but he still found pleasure in simple things. It was one of the numerous things which she admired about him. Looking away from her blond teammate, she let her gaze lazily roam around, enjoying the quiet and lush green scene. It was such a beautiful day, the blue sky stretching endlessly. In fact, it had been a nice summer throughout, and she regretted not spending time outside enjoying it. The warm sun felt wonderful on her skin, and she gave a sigh of content. She slowly set to remove her boots and gloves, sighing in pleasure as her toes made contact with the soft, cool grass.

"You sure are missing out! The water is fabulous!" Naruto shouted out some splashes later, making Sakura look back at him. Rivulets of water cascaded down his body as he stood up, the spiky blond hair now heavy with moisture and fell down over his eyes.

Wet skin, hard muscles. Sakura shivered.

"Come on, Sakura-Chan!" His boisterous voice broke her out of her contemplation, as he waved at her encouragingly.

Gulping, she quickly turned her head away, not wanting him to catch her ogling at him.

"No I—Naruto!" she yelped, as the blond suddenly appeared in front of her, dripping water all over her and a wide, mischievous grin on his face.

"You need convincing!" he laughed.

With a tug on her wrists, he lifted her to her feet and forcefully pulled her to the stream. She tried to tug him back, but he already had her in the water.

"Naruto!" she growled protestingly.

"Nothing better than a cool dip after training!" he exclaimed, and flung them both into the shallow, cool water.

She cursed as she rose up spluttering – thankfully the river bed was made of soft sand, not rocks - and he laughed, throwing his hair out of his eyes. The water was indeed good, she had to admit to herself, its refreshing coolness heavenly on her trained-induced tired body. But she refused to be treated in such a caveman way.

She lunged forward. He roared and tried to swim away, but she managed to grab his shoulders and pulled him down, shoving him under the water. He retaliated by grabbing an ankle and pulling. With a loud yelp, she found herself immersed again under the water. Struggling to keep her balance, she sucked in a mouthful of water before coming out coughing fiercely. She stood up, her hair plastered to her head as she faced him. He was still laughing gleefully, standing close by. She bunched her fists menacingly.

"Naruto! You don't want me to spoil that handsome face of yours now, do you?" she yelled as she managed to regain her breath. Then she froze as she realized her words. _Hopefully he has not caught that?_

Her wishful thoughts turned to be fruitless as blue eyes immediately lighted with swift speculation. Suddenly, their water fight seemed to be forgotten. He had stilled, and watched her, eyes full of mischief.

_Damn!_ Was her harried thought.

"So, you think I'm handsome?" His voice was suave.

"No! I m-mean," _Why am I stuttering!_ She quickly fought to regain her composure. "At least, all the girls of Konoha think you are," she said, aiming for a mocking tone.

"And do you agree with their opinion?" he asked, keen, interested blue eyes pinned on her, while a teasing smile fluttered around his lips.

She pretended to study his face as though it hadn't already been implanted in her mind. "I think," tilting her head to one side to get a better view of the handsome features, her tone purposely sardonic, "you're a bit too much of a baka to be truly handsome."

A low, rumbling sound of laughter followed her words as Naruto, with a bounce, reached out to enclose her waist with his hands. "Haruno Sakura, you're flirting with me!" he accused.

Her head snapped up at that, while at the same time rolling waves of warmth spread out from where his hands held her, the heat of his touch searing through her wet clothes.

"What? I _wasn't_!" Her chocked protest was followed by her hands moving out to grab the tanned arms in an attempt to ward him off, her face burning deep red.

She felt a sudden jellying of her knees under the water. _This is not happening again,_ she thought almost frantically, locking her knees tight.

"You were, too, and you're going to have to pay the consequence," he laughed, the cerulean eyes dancing with mischief as he tightened his hold on her, playfully drawing her closer to him.

_Move!_ Her mind screamed at her sudden stupefied body, and she finally geared into action. She shoved him forcefully down in the water again, and immediately waded a safe distance away, trying to hide her flusteredness. He surfaced, laughing, but did not insist as she moved away, though he still held the wide, open teasing grin.

"Time to go now, unlike you, I have lots of work to do!" she called out beyond her shoulder as she sprinted out of the water.

Her heart was hammering against her rib as she sat back on the grass, and started to pull her boots over her still wet feet. It had only been some harmless playing around, but she was so not used to this type of flirty banter. It has left her feeling totally out of her depth. _It was just some fooling around! Get a grip of yourself! _She repeated like a mantra. She tugged harder at her boot, the thing stubbornly refusing to go over her ankle. After a short battle, she decided she was being stupid; she should just let her feet dried before attempting to put them on again.

What the hell was happening to her? She thought again. This was twice now that she had been reduced to a stuttering, pathetic mess, and she did not like this at all. She felt so juvenile. This was _Naruto_, for God's sake. She was supposed to be his punching, scary teammate, not a blushing, spluttering, shy maiden!

He has had a teasing, open look throughout the whole thing, and she was sure that had not been any ulterior motive behind it all. She was the one making a mountain out of a molehill. She was terrified that things would become awkward between them due to her foolish, uncontrollable emotions, and she _did not_ want anything to mar her friendship with Naruto.

She took some rapid, deep breaths to calm her clamoring senses and steadied herself, while Naruto walked out of the water at a slower pace.

XOXOX

"You're not joining in?"

Sasuke gave an inner sigh before slowly opening his eyes. He had sensed her presence long before she had talked, and had hoped that she was not coming his way. Tough luck. He turned slightly to look at the Yamanake girl, who had joined him on his perch on the huge, tall tree.

"I prefer to meditate at this hour."

"Hmm. They seem to be having fun," she remarked.

They both watched their Hokage and their head medic-nin splashing in the stream before Sakura walking out.

"Hn."

A short silence followed, while he hoped that she would leave him alone. He closed his eyes pointedly, hoping she would get the message. He was still uncomfortable to have lovey-dovey social interactions with the others, most especially when he was without his two team-mates as buffer.

"Can't you _do_ something for them?"

Seemed she had the intention to linger, he groaned internally. Ino could be pushy when she wants, that he knew very well. He looked at the blond, at first wanting to pretend not to know what she was talking about. Then decided it would be useless as he faced the sharp, knowing eyes.

"No, it's up to them to do it," he replied.

"But a little push would help."

"He is right. It's their private business, and they should be the one to do something," came the lazy, annoyed drawl of Shikamaru, as he joined them on another branch. "Stop pestering everybody about pushing them together, Ino."

Sasuke quietly nodded a greeting at the Nara. He liked the guy's down to earth attitude. A crunching noise made him look down, seeing Chouji munching on his chips. He gave another long inner sigh. It seemed that he would not be going back to his meditation soon.

"How long do you think it will take them to get it?"

The four of them jumped slightly as they turned to look at Kakashi, as usual an Icha-Icha book in his hand. Sasuke was irked. His sensing abilities seemed to be getting worse, if he had not been able to detect their old teacher approaching.

"I'll say not earlier than a year, at the slow rate Naruto is moving," snickered Chouji.

"I'll say six months," Shikamaru drawled after getting over his surprise at seeing Kakashi, while Ino still had her mouth hanging opened at the almost casual way the Team 7's sensei was discussing his two students' love-life.

"Huh? You really think they'll get together so soon, if ever?" Ino asked, her still surprised eyes leaving Kakashi.

"Sure they will," drawled Sasuke.

"Wanna bet?" Kakashi looked challengingly at them.

"Ok, done," quickly agreed Ino, always the quick one to recover.

"Count me in too," Chouji said.

Shikamaru gave a deep sigh. "It's so troublesome, but count me in too."

"Count us in too, we say four months." Two shadows suddenly materialized out of nowhere, as two ANBU appeared. They had been at the trail of the Hokage, as usual, since the latter had left his domicile, and the little morning's escapade at the head medic's Nin had really caught their interest.

"EEEEEP!" Ino screamed. Staring at the masked ANBU in astonishment, she spluttered, "Geez, aren't you ANBUs supposed to be the serious types? How come you're interested in others' lovelife, let alone bet on it?"

The two men shrugged. "Can't lose such a great opportunity," one of them said.

"I say eight months!"

"Tsunade sama!" immediately came a chiding protest, as Shizune appeared, panting, behind the ex Hokage. "Tsunade- Sama, you shouldn't overdo yourself like that, you know your lifetime…"

"Shizune, a little run like that won't use up my life time!" Tsunade impatiently cut her off, and looked at the small group, eyes gleaming with interest.

Shizune sweatdropped. _A little run like that?_ The two of them had been taking their routine morning walk in the greens of the village, when the Ex Hokage had disappeared in a _blur_. Shizune had followed behind, _trying_ to catch up; to land up here. Sometimes, Shizune wondered just how much of a truth had there been in Tsunade's claim that her lifetime had shortened. She felt that the cunning woman would live another fifty years, the things she did sometimes.

"Tsunade-sama!" Ino gasped, going from surprise to surprise. "What brings you here?"

"The word "BET'," growled Shizune.

"So, what's the stake?" asked Tsunade, all business. It's been a long time since she's had a good bet going on. "As said earlier, I think it'll be eight months." She hoped with all her heart that her usual losing jinx will work this time too, and the two bakas will get together much, much sooner than that.

"I'll say less than two months." All heads turned in shock towards the Uchiha. "Count me in too."

"Uh…can I change my bet?" one of the ANBU asked.

"No."

Soon, all of them had grouped together, and they discussed the conditions.

"I'll have to tell the others about it, they would want to join in too," said Kakashi.

Shikamaru gave another, the umpteenth, sigh. "How troublesome, I'll have to send a hawk to Suna. Temari will skin me alive if she founds out about this and that I didn't let her in."

Ino glared at her team-mate. It was the first time that he has talked so openly about Temari. She didn't know whether or be glad, or angry that he had talked only under a betting occasion.

"And Temari means Gaaraa and Kankuro as well," he continued. "So, you will have to include them as well. I'll tell you their reply when I get their hawk back."

Before they parted, Tsunade gave them a warning. "_No_ cheating on this, though. This is too important and we do not want to mess anything between these two. So, no pushing, no hints, not arranging situations, nothing! I need your solemn words for this."

They all agreed, and dispersed.

XOXOX

Back to the stream, Naruto felt the grouping at the outskirt of the training ground. He was curious, though not alarmed. If it would have been something urgent, they would have come to get him. He did not want to end his time with Sakura – they had another half an hour or so, during which he wanted to enjoy her company. It's been so long since they've had such a time, just the two of them together. He slowly reached her side, and dropped his body on the ground besides her.

"That was nice," he sighed, pulling his arms over his head and using them as pillow while he laid on his back, looking up at the sky and letting the sun dry the moisture off his skin.

Sakura carefully avoided looking at the sculptured body lying next to her; trying her utmost best not to even allow her thoughts to stray anywhere near the wonderfully tanned skin, glistering in the sun as it shifted over his muscled chest when he raised his arms to place them under his head. Desperately, she blurted the first thing that came to her mind.

"What happened about the Daimyo's daughter, have you heard from her?"

She immediately berated herself. That was the last topic she had wanted to broach; it was like an invitation to get him to tease her about being jealous again. She cursed her sudden, uncomfortable inability to keep her cool and reign on her tongue while being in his presence these days.

"Why are you so interested?" he laughed, turning his head to look at her.

There, she asked for it. "Okay, I won't ask if it's something which you don't want to discuss," she huffed. "I didn't know it was a taboo subject."

"Sakura-Chan!" he immediately protested. He hoisted himself up on an elbow, facing her. "You know it's not that! Of course you can ask." He shrugged, "It's just that, nothing happened. I didn't give the Daimyo the opening to make any proposal, if any."

By the second day of his visit, Naruto had realized what could probably be on the Daimyo's mind. The heavy hints the man had been dropping, and the flagrant flirting of Kiyone, even in the presence of the Daimyo and to which the man had not seemed to have any objection, had been revealing enough. After the dinner party, while accompanying the Daimyo and his family to the guesthouse, Naruto had openly claimed his undying love for a certain Kunoichi, enthusing about how he so looked forward to be tied with her, forestalling the Daimyo from making any approach. It had worked. The Daimyo had splutteredly asked whether Naruto already had a potential wife in mind, to which Naruto had replied affirmatively. Kiyone had been speechless – for once – and before they could react, Naruto had hurriedly took his leave.

"But he had been about to propose?" Sakura asked, curious.

He sighed. "Yeah, I think so." He didn't say anything further, and she didn't push.

"It's strange to think that I would get a marriage proposal from a Daimyo for his daughter," he chuckled. "_Me_."

She smiled. "You're certainly not anybody now, Naruto." Remembering what Temari said, she said, "You being the most powerful shinobi of Konoha, young and very eligible, it's not surprising at all. You are bound to attract a fair share of proposals, and from the _best_ of all."

"Sakura-Chan!" he chuckled awkwardly, embarrassed at her teasing and almost proud smile, "It's not this way, really."

"Temari was saying that proposals had started to rain in for Gaaraa as well since he's the Kazekage," she told him.

He chuckled. "Gaara has something else planned, anyway."

Sakura jerked her head at him, eyes wide opened. "He has someone?" she pounced.

Naruto nodded, eyes dancing. "Yap. Matsuri, remember her?" he said before she could phrase the obvious question in her mind.

"Matsuri?" she squealed. She used to form part of Temari's squad, and Sakura remembered how she seemed very taken with Garaa.

"But don't leak that out. Especially not to Temari," Naruto quickly said. "Garaa has specifically asked not to let Temari know – yet."

Sakura nodded, a smile on her lips. "I'm so happy for him,"

"So," he started after a short silence, toying with a strand of grass, "being Hokage does seem to have its positive side when concerning wooing girls, then." He stole a glance at her. "I'm sure you would not be too impartial if I was to ask you for a date now, would you, being the Hokage and all?" he asked, half teasingly, half nervously.

Caught off guard, she jerked her head towards him. Having been in an emotional rollercoaster the past couple of weeks, having fought the continuous battle within herself, his choice of words made her immediately riled up.

_That stings,_ she thought, face darkening.

Her brows slammed together with annoyance, she scrambled to her feet and glared down at him, affronted.

"You think I would accept a date with you _only_ because you are _Hokage_ now, _if_ you were to ask?" she asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"Uum…?" he was unsure how to respond, and watched her nervously.

"Are you trying to insinuate that I'm that shallow?" she demanded, her eyes flashed furiously at him.

"Huh?" he looked up at her, totally dumbfounded by her sudden, inexplicable anger. "Sakura-Chaan, I didn't mean it like that!" he spluttered, not really knowing which part to take back.

But she was too riled up to listen. "Don't always presume you know what _I_ feel!" she snarled. She spun on her heels and marched off, desperate to get away from there before she said anything that would end up humiliating herself further.

By the time Naruto had got over his stupefaction and scrambled to his feet, she had disappeared in a huff. He stood there, mouth opened and totally bewildered. He scratched the back of his head, not understanding what had just happened._ Girls!_ He thought, feeling like pulling all his hair from his head. He had never and could never understand them!

But still, the idea of Sakura being angry with him, for whatever reason, was definitely not something that appealed to him, and he hurriedly put on his clothes, collecting her boots which she had forgotten in her haste and made his way towards the village center.

XOXOX

A while later…

"Sakura-Chaaaaan. Please, come on!"

"No."

Leaving the training ground, she had reached her apartment in a blaze of anger, and had just finished shedding off her damp clothes when he had arrived at her door, knocking. Forsaking the shower which she had been planning to take, she had quickly slipped into a dry set of clothes, and had mutinously refused to open him. Having not managed to get her to open her front door, Naruto had resorted to throwing pebbles at her balcony doors again to try to convince her to talk.

"Sakura-Chan…"

"I said NO! Stop hollering under my balcony!" She stood at her balcony, looking icily down her nose at him. "And doesn't the Hokage have better things to do than to harass Kunoichis?"

Not waiting to hear his reply, she stepped back from the balcony into her bedroom, sliding the door closed with a bang. She drew the veiled curtains over with good measure, wanting to close him out completely. She hoped that now he has got the message that she was in no mood to talk. At least, not now, not when she felt so riled up.

She had barely taken a step away when there was a knock this time. Swerving around angrily, she saw the outline of the blond through her veiled curtain. Impatiently drawing the curtain a little, she found him crouching precariously on the railing, the lithe way he maintained his balance on the thin metal rail top impressive; but she was in no mood to admire his dexterity.

"Narutooo!"

"I'll not budge from here until you talk to me," came his muffled voice. He could have stood safely within the balcony, but he stayed crouched on the rail for reasons only known to himself, Sakura noted darkly.

"Go away!"

"No. I'll stay here even if it takes the whole day and night. So, please open the door and let's talk."

She debated leaving him hanging there, but rationality took over – she could not let their Hokage perched on her rail like a crow now, could she. And unlike the morning, her neighbors were all up and starting to look out of their windows curiously. Her building was in a very quite part of town, but still, she did want to give her sparse neighbors a free show like that.

Scowling, she slid the door open.

"Can I come in?" he asked almost timidly.

She snorted, and turned around to walk away.

"Ok, I'll take that as a yes," he warned, before lithely jumping from his perch and walking in her room.

He grinned internally. His pressure strategy had worked. He knew she would not have let him stay perched like that for long. But all smug thoughts immediately flew out of his mind as he watched her angrily exiting the room. He had to placate her, and fast. He was used to her apartment, having been over countless of times, so he followed her to the living area.

"Sakura-Chan, why are you so angry?"

He was met with a mutinous silence.

"I was just teasing; I'm sorry if I've offended you."

She didn't reply, and busied herself with aimlessly arranging the decorative cushions on her couch. She was starting to feel childish to continue sulking, but she was still too riled up and hurt to snap of it.

"Sakura." He moved behind her, gripped her shoulder and turn her firmly around. "Sakura…what is it. Talk to me." He was suddenly serious, all teasing having left his face. "We are best friends. You _know_ I am very bad at reading between lines. What did I say? I told you I was teasing."

His clear blue eyes looked genuinely distressed. She hung her head, starting to feel guilty of her outburst. "Well, it…hurt how you depicted me as so …so _opportunist_," she finally said after a short silence. "You made me sound so shallow, as if you becoming Hokage and famous are the only reason I am your friend."

His mouth opened in surprise, but before he could say anything, she hurried on. "I mean, okay, I know I _was_ a nasty, vain girl during our Genin days, only chasing after the most famous one." A red tinge of shame crept up her cheeks. "And being mean to you at the same time. I do have remorse for that and I apologize for that girl I used to be. But surely it's obvious that I've changed now?" she asked in a small voice.

He looked at her, exasperation and something else which she dared not interpret in his eyes. "Sakura-Chan, if I was Sakura, and you Naruto, I would have gladly punched the daylights out of you and called you a baka," he said solemnly.

Her eyes widened. "Huh?"

"Surely you know that I do not think of you like that! I've received your acknowledgment long way back, when I was still a nobody. Iruka sensei, Sasuke, Kakashi and you were the first people to believe in me, when no-one else did." His smile was soft, his eyes blazing, as he looked at her intently. "Even when you were chasing the coolest guy of Konoha back during our Genin days, you had already acknowledged ME."

"Naruto…"

"And what are you apologizing for? I have become this strong due to you and Sasuke. You two have been my motivation to get where I am. And _you_ have always been my strength, and support pillar during all those years," he said in a low voice.

His gaze stopped on the four-inched scar on her bare forearm…scar which he had given her, those years ago, while being in four tails level. A scar made by the Kitsune does not disappear, they've learned. He had stopped letting his eyes be plagued with guilt when he looked at the white fleshy mark, as she had threatened to resort to long sleeves if he continued to bear the guilty look every time he saw it.

He raised his right hand to slowly, smoothly run his fingers over the scar. She shivered, goosebumps rising on her skin at the contact. She struggled to keep her attention on his words, not wanting her reactions to overwhelm her again.

"Don't undervalue our bond again, Sakura." He dropped his hand to his side. "How can you even think for one second that I see you as vain because of what we share now?" he asked.

"Naruto _," She stalled, words missing her. His words were a balm to the guilt she had carried since years now.

"You better not have such silly doubts again," he said, flashing her a wide smile. "Please know that you'll always be my best friend, my most precious person, whatever may happen."

She opened her mouth, but he put a silencing finger on her lips. "Always, Sakura-Chan. Nothing will change that."

The moment was intense; then he carefully took a step back. Right then, their friendship was more precious than anything else for him to say or do anything further. He would continue with _that_ endeavor another time, he thought. He smiled brightly.

"Okay, I think this call for a good ole hot bowl of Ramen!" he said enthusiastically, pulling her by her arms. The atmosphere lightened.

"I don't have much time left to start my shift!" she protested.

"Come on, you surely don't intend to go to work with an empty stomach," he remarked. "And nothing better that to have a hot bowl of ramen right after a training," he laughed.

He was right. She was suddenly ravenous. A quick bite won't hurt.

As they exited her apartment building a very short while later, she said firmly, "Naruto, still, I've never really apologized for how I was often mean to you during our Genin days. I'm sorry for that nasty brat that I was."

He immediately stopped to face her. "Then, in that case I apologize for being that _annoying_, pestering baka that I was back then; and still am!" he promptly replied.

"Hey, don't say that. You're m…"she stopped suddenly, a red tint creeping up her cheeks. She had been about to say you are _my_ baka. This was being a too current occurrence, her talking without thinking first, she thought, appalled.

"Don't change Naruto," she said instead, as he looked at her expectantly. "Baka and all. Don't change too much! Try to retain some of the Naruto that you have always been."

Naruto looked at her in surprise, remembering Tsunade's words some weeks back. He grinned. "Don't worry, I won't."

With a swift movement, he leaned towards her ear. "I will always be _your_ baka," he whispered, and discreetly brushed his lips against the side of her forehead. And instantly jumped a few yards away, where the Konohan crowds were milling about.

Sakura stood there, mouth opened, as a deep blush crept up her face.

"Come on, Sakura-Chan! The ramen is waiting!" he called out cheerfully, grinning brightly.


	5. Chapter 5

**As usual, thank you, thank you ALL for the lovely reviews and encouragements! It's amazing and so motivating, and thanks to all those who have read the story.**

**A short note: I don't know what will happen to Anko in the cannon, but I had already included her in the story, and I didn't want to change it now – I was already sad to have to exclude Yamato in the story, not knowing what will happen to him ****(( **

XOXOX

"You're supposed to pile it all up," the young Rokudaime protested loudly. "You're ruining it!"

"It would never have taken off the way you arranged them," came the annoyed reply.

"Since when are you the BBQ expert?"

"Since when do you know anything outside ramen?"

"Weren't you supposed to eat only snake food while being with _Oru_?"

Sasuke glared at him with narrowed eyes.

"If you two continue like this, I'm punching both of you out of your wits," Sakura warned. _Boys never grow_, she thought exasperatedly, as she watched the two arguing.

Night had fallen, and the three of them were in the small back garden of the Hokage's residence. Naruto and Sasuke was busy fawning over the small, brand new coal grill set which proudly adorned the space – gift from a grateful inhabitant from a neighboring village to the Hokage – while Sakura was tiredly sprawled on a picnic blanket on the ground, her back propped against one of the decorative boulders which adorned the garden, a soft cushion provided by Naruto wedged between her body and the solid surface for comfort. Naruto had wanted to try his new gift, and had wanted Sasuke and Sakura over for the 'inauguration'.

The two males had to practically kidnapped Sakura. They find her almost falling off her feet after a long 14 hours shift, half-heartedly protesting about having to complete some reports; protest which the Hokage had firmly pushed aside. As soon as they reached Hokage's home, she has been ordered to sit back and relax, while the two men would look after the food preparations.

Now, there she sat, lazily watching the two playing chefs and bickering like an old married couple. The latest disagreement was how to get the charcoal taken up properly.

"Sakura-Chan!" Naruto said making a long face at her threat. Even Sasuke looked chastised.

"And I still am unhappy that you have refused to let me include ramen in the menu," Naruto grumbled.

"Naruto," she said, rolling her eyes, "BBQ and ramen is not a good combination."

Sasuke gave a snort of agreement.

"Teme has suddenly become a nutritionist?" Naruto snipped.

"At least he eats a balanced diet with lots of veggies," Sakura piped in.

"You two are teaming up against me," Naruto protested. "Not fair," he muttered under his breath. "And don't forget," he wagered a spatula at Sasuke, "next time it's your turn! It's been ages since we've ate at the Uchiha's! You don't want to fight for the title of legendary sucker with Baa-Chan, right?"

Dark eyes slashed at him. "You had lunch at my place day before yesterday."

"Was it?" Naruto asked innocently.

Sakura sighed, burying herself blissfully into the cushion. She half listened to the two, her eyes filled with fondness. Dreams do come true, she thought. The team 7 did survive. She felt relaxed, enjoying the warm summer air scented with fresh grass, the sweet smell of summer fruits and the acid burning of charcoal.

The garden, designed by Ino, was small, cozy and inviting. It was a typical Japanese garden, with a tiny stream snaking in a corner, stepping stones to walk across the ankle length water, rocks, lots of rocks scattered artfully around, lanterns casting soft light here and there, and different variety of shrubs strategically placed over the lush green lawn. The house complemented the garden; it was a small handsome one storeyed building – Naruto had not wanted a huge house – the elegant Japanese architecture blending with the surrounding. The gang had a blast decorating it the previous year, when finally Naruto had been able to put some funds in its construction, at the insistence of his close ones. The result was a homey, comfortable yet classy décor which befitted the Hokage.

"I hope the food is ready tonight," she interrupted them. "I'm getting hungry."

Soon, the delicious smell of grilled meat waffled through the air, a while later, they all sat reclined on the ground, the food eaten, their stomach satiated and relaxed.

"That was delicious," Sakura sighed in pleasure. She felt well fed, happy and at peace with the world as she languidly watched the dying embers of the BBQ pit. A sudden huge yawn took her by surprise. "Sorry about that," she said, sheepish.

Naruto smiled as he looked sideways at her. He shared the large boulder against which she was reclined, propped barely some inches away besides her, while Sasuke sat opposite them. "You are overworking yourself, Sakura-Chan," he remarked, unhappily observing the dark, tired circles around her eyes.

She just waved his concern away. "I'm fine," she insisted, "and look who's talking. You're always finishing at late hours too."

"Can't you get more help at the hospital?" Sasuke asked, he as well having noted the dark circles which seemed to have become a permanent fixture on her tired face.

"We're quite under staffed," said Sakura. "We still have lots of follow-ups to do resulting from war injuries. This should taper out soon. It's more the teaching which is eating lots of my time right now."

"Why don't you space out your classes?" asked Naruto.

She shook her head. "The quicker we have the new batch ready, the better it is." She shifted her weight to get to a more comfortable position against the boulder. "Once my class gets their cruising speed, they will be grouped in three and assigned to other doctors. It will not be so much on me then. Until then, it's my responsibility." She rubbed her eyes drowsily as another yawn caught up with her. "We need to pass down our knowledge to the next generation," she mumbled. "The will of fire."

Sakura could hear a low hum of voices, but she was too tetanised with sleep to catch the words. She foggily became conscious of a deep, quiet rumble of voice beneath her ears. Not wanting to come out of the heavenly warmth surrounding her, she instinctively snuggled deeper into the wonderful, warm surface underneath her, turning her head instinctively to bury her face into the buzzing medium and inhaling deeply as she did so. The low rumble beneath her ears immediately stopped. A deeply profound ba-doum, ba-doum noise took over.

_This smells wonderful_, she thought druggedly, nudging her nose deeper and taking a slow, long inhale to get maximum of the heavenly scent. Musky. Earthen. Male.

The ba-doum noise increased its tempo. She frowned, and surfaced from her torpor enough to realize that she was hearing a heartbeat. An accelerated heartbeat.

_Male?_ She suddenly thought with a jolt.

She was immediately fully awake and dragged her eyes opened. She felt momentarily disoriented, before becoming aware that her face was buried into a chest; a warm chest. Rapidly gaining more of her senses, she realized that she was reclined onto a red robed body, with one arm around her as support, her own arms encircling a torso. Male torso, definitely.

Her breath hitched; snapping her head up, she found herself practically nose to nose with a wide eyed whiskered face. She was immediately immersed in the two pools of darkened blue orbs.

"N-Naruto?" she stuttered, her voice raspy from sleep.

Without real conscious thought, the green eyes, still with traces of sleep, migrated to the whiskers marks which adorned each of his cheeks, to finally settle on the lips which were so tantalizingly close._ He has beautiful, sensual lips, _was her hazy thoughts,_ and they are just a breath away._ A sudden, wild longing flared in the pit of her stomach, and her lips involuntarily parted as heartbeat picked up speed.

His sudden sharp intake of breath made her raise her eyes back to his, and close to her ear, she could feel the increasing tempo of his heart. The serious intensity of his gaze made the small hair on her nape stood straight.

A low, discreet cough broke into her transfixed state, making her sanity returned, with it, the full realization of her predicament. Her eyes widened. She must have dozed off, and had been using Naruto as reclining pillow. Her face felt hot with awkwardness as she quickly detangled herself off him and clumsily scrambled some feet away. She reddened even more when thinking how she had been sniffing his scent, and ogling at his lips like a starved girl. With an audience in the form of her second team-mate, on top of it.

She looked at Sasuke, who had made the noise to snap her from her trance. He watched her back with thinly veiled amusement, one corner of his lips quirking slightly. She was thankful for the darkness which hid most of her embarrassment and deep blush.

"I'm so sorry," she mumbled, avoiding to look directly at Naruto. "I fell asleep." She was finding herself so often into very awkward moments with him that it was getting ridiculous.

"You were totally drained," Naruto said easily, his voice strangely rough, though.

"Have I been sleeping for long?" She glanced at Sasuke again, still unable to meet the blond's eyes.

"Barely 15 minutes," replied Sasuke.

"We thought it was better not to disturbing you," Naruto added.

"It's time for me to get going," she said, forcing a cheer in her voice to hide her agitation as she finally looked at Naruto. He looked quite pale in the faint glow of the lanterns.

"I'll walk you back." Naruto immediately stood up.

"No!" Sakura protested hastily. "It's only a short way, I'll be there in a bounce," she insisted. She needed to be alone.

"Okay," Naruto agreed after a short silence, hiding his disappointment.

XOXOX

Some days later…

Slouched on a high stool, one elbow propped against the bar counter and hand supporting her chin, Sakura's gaze was lost in the tall glass of her fruity drink, as if she would find the replies to her woes in the orange colored liquid. She was maybe among the very few in the loudly animated bar who was having a non-alcoholic drink. Well, she and Lee. Ino had made sure that there was non-alcoholic beverage provided.

It was Ino's birthday, and the Yamanaka girl had wanted to celebrate it in the trendy and friendly bar which was mostly visited by shinobis. A finger food buffet was located in the corner of the room, loud music blasted over the sound systems, and the mood was festive. Sakura recognized most of the people present, apart from a bunch of young male shinobis which she was not acquainted with. Most probably Ino's idea of providing partners for the still single Kunoichis, with her at the top of the list, Sakura thought ruefully when she had seen Ino's pointed gaze as she had introduced Sakura.

Making idle chats with unknown men was the last thing she wanted, and quickly making some excuses, Sakura had reclused herself, and sat alone at the bar, slowly sipping her drink. The loud chatters and laughs barely registered in her mind as she sank in her thoughts. As per the last couple of days, her mind was deeply preoccupied. She had been purposely immersing herself totally in work the past days, needing her mind to be faint-tired to be able to sleep. The little free time she had, such as now, was spent in reflecting on her actual state of feelings and evaluating her emotions concerning a certain former blond teammate of hers. Her emotions had been on a rollercoaster mode, sometimes feeling giddy with shaky feelings she got when thinking about him, to immediately, guiltily having to put a brake all those types of feelings – believing that she was not allowed to entertain such thoughts concerning him.

She would be a fool not to see that something was slowly changing between them. But how was it changing, exactly? Maybe their friendship was just shifting as they grow older? Maybe it was still nothing more that some flirty moments between two good, oppositely gendered friends? A girl and a boy; maybe some flirtiness was bound to happen? She remembered how Jiraiya used to have light banters with lots of innuendos with Tsunade shishou…But they had still been nothing more than two very close friends.

The confused questions have been torturing her mind the past couple of days. It was getting damn hard to maintain the good friendly façade when inside she felt such stormy feelings. She was terrified of misinterpreting things, and despite his assuring words, she was desperate not to lose his friendship by making the mistake of crossing any boundaries that she should not. There would be no turning back or rectification if she did or said the wrong things, and she did not want to risk that. It was out of question that she talked about all this with him, the simple idea of his reaction in case all this was in her mind only and probable rejection made her shudder; she had to figure this out on her own.

Though not avoiding him purposely, she had avoided instances where she would be alone with him for too long. She knew it was cowardly of her to run away from the situation, but it was the best she could do for the time being. Until she could settle down her raging emotions, until she figured all this out, and resume the previous serenity of their friendship, she felt it was better to keep a safe distance away.

Said person had not yet made appearance in the gathering. She had come straight from the hospital, still in her working gears, and had thought to be the latest one, but Ino had informed her that the Hokage was having a late meeting.

She gave a deep sigh. _Why are things so complicated, suddenly?_

"That's one big sigh," drawled a feminine voice, and Sakura turned her head to see Anko. "May I join you?" Without waiting for a reply, the older Jounin slid on the empty high stool and propped her hands on the counter.

"Anko-san," greeted Sakura almost reverently. Anko was a figure that most Kunoichis looked up to, being one of the rare female veteran and a war hero.

"So, such a sigh can only be linked to man problem," Anko drawled with a roguish grin.

Sakura looked up in surprise and mortification. _God, was she so transparent?_ She thought grumpily to herself.

"I_," Sakura stopped, suddenly fumbling.

"Don't worry, it's not that obvious," said the older woman. "Except to the most seasoned eyes, that is," she grinned deviously.

Sakura laughed nervously, her cheeks pink.

"What are you having?" Anko asked, peering into Sakura's glass.

"It's the fruity punch," Sakura replied almost timidly.

Anko rolled her eyes. Beckoning the bartender, she said, "Give me a bottle of sake and two cups, please." As soon as her order was set in front of her, she filled the two cups to the brim, one of which she pushed towards Sakura. "Here. This call for a good ole sake. Great to take off the edge of problems," she told the fidgeting Sakura. "Specially man problems. It was how I managed to rope that old sensei of yours," she crackled.

Sakura almost fell off her stool in surprise. "Kakashi sensei..?" she asked, her jaw hanging open.

Anko winked at her. "The very one. It was high time I get him in my net!"

Sakura was still digesting this last piece of news, when they were joined by the birthday girl. Ino looked gorgeous in a black short dress, and Chouji, holding her by the hand, seemed to be very aware of the fact. The muscularly bulky and handsome young Akimichi could barely remove his eyes from her.

Seeing the cup of sake in front of Sakura, Ino exclaimed, surprised, "You're having sake?" It was very difficult, almost impossible to get Sakura to have alcohol. "Great!" the birthday girl enthused. Not giving the pink haired girl time to respond, Ino immediately called for Ten-Ten and Hinata, and ordered another bottle of sake and some more cups.

Chouji declined the offer of a cup. "I'll leave you girls to yourselves," he chuckled, looking indulgently at his fiancée. Before he left the girls to join Lee and company, Ino went up her toes to dropt a swift kiss on his cheeks, making him blush deep red. He was very shy about open affections in public.

"So, Forehead, let's drink!" Ino cheered as all the cups had been duely filled, Anko approving.

"Why not?" Sakura finally said, joining in the enthusiasm. She was feeling a rebellious streak growing inside herself, and the need to let go of some of her inhibitions. She had been moping too much lately, and she wanted to have some fun.

XOXOX

"This is an excellent plan." Naruto looked up at Shikamaru, impressed. "As was expected from you," he said seriously.

Shikamaru huffed, trying to hide his embarrassment at the praise.

Sasuke, Neiji, Sai and Kakashi, all standing around the Hokage's desk and pouring their heads onto the large paper layout which Shikamaru had opened on the table, nodded their heads in agreement. The Nara had pictorized his plan by simple flowcharts and putting down his ideas on a map of the journey from Konoha to Suna. Black dotted line showed different routes he had proposed and red arrows showed strategic points where each different group would rest during the three days journey from Konoha to Suna. His strategy was simple yet brilliant: several different groups would set out from Konoha, each groups, except one, would have a false Hokage, a Naruto's kage bunshin. The several envoys would have two functions; that of multiplying the invitation to get attacked, and that to act as decoy.

"You're sure your bunshins would hold up for three whole days?" Shikamaru asked Naruto again. The young Hokage nodded. His bunshins could last for a week if he wanted, unless they were fatally injured.

"I don't see any loopholes. This should work," slowly agreed Kakashi, though he was still apprehensive of the danger Naruto was putting himself into. They were supposed to set out to Suna in less than a week, and being the only senior who was in this secret plan, he felt responsible of the young Hokage.

Naruto looked thoughtful. "I'll make a change, though," he said after a silence. "I'll keep the number of envoys down to two only. Only one decoy."

Shikamaru looked back at him. "Naruto_" he started, but the young Hokage stopped him.

"I don't want to put more than necessary people at risk," he said quietly. "Please…" he looked at the young Nara.

Shikamaru gave a sigh. "Troublesome, as usual," he mumbled. 'Okay, I suggest we'll take these two routes then," he said, and everybody once again poured their head on the paper, while Shikamaru explained.

A short while later, a knock sounded on the door. Kiba, accompanied as usual with Akamaru, entered the office at Naruto's 'Come in!' As per Shikamaru's advice, Kiba would form part of the real Naruto's envoy; his and Akamaru's tracking ability was crucial. Shikamaru quickly briefed Kiba on the mission.

Sakura and Tsunade were absent from this meeting, Naruto had still refused to involve them at that point.

"You're crazy not to tell Sakura," Sasuke bluntly told him, "she's one of your security consort and you allocated medic-nin; she should be included in the envoy."

"I really doubt you would be able to exclude her," Kakashi added, agreeing with Sasuke.

Naruto sighed. "She would not be agreeable to this and I don't want her to try to dissuade me," he said. "I know she will try to." And he may be selfish, but he was reluctant in to expose her to this danger by taking her in the mission.

"But you would need a medic-nin," Neiji pointed out.

Shikamaru nodded in agreement, but Naruto stubbornly refused to heed.

"How do you intend to inform her that she is not to accompany you, anyway?" asked Sai. He failed to see how Naruto would pull this off.

Naruto shrugged at the questions. "I'll deal with it when the times come," he said.

The others eyed him exasperatedly, really not expecting him to get out of that as easily as he was thinking, but they did not pushed the issue. The meeting continued for a longer while before all the details were settled.

Finally, looking at the time, Shikamaru tched. "It's late. Let's go. Ino will kill us otherwise."

The others agreed, all having been invited to the birthday bash.

When the group entered the bar, Naruto's attention was immediately drawn to an incredible sight which caused him to do a double take and his eyes to widen; that of Sakura, perched on top of a table, swaying to the slow music number blasting in the air.

His prim and proper Sakura-Chan, dancing, on top of a table at that…it was a sight to behold. She was in her working gears, but even the drab white short-sleeved shirt and red demure knee length skirt split over her black shorts looked hot on her slim form. Naruto felt his mouth go dry as he watched her, his eyes riveted on the sensual sway of her hips while she tried to follow the slow beat of the music. He watched, enrapt, when she raised her arms almost languorously above her head and arched her body to and fro.

Suddenly, she lost her balance and stumbled, and _giggled_, spoiling the effect and he blinked. As he looked closer, focusing on her face, he saw her flushed cheeks and her glazed eyes. And he immediately realized that she was drunk.

"What the hell!"

Sasuke's muttered expletive broke into Naruto's bemused state. The young Hokage recollected his thoughts and took in his surrounding. He noticed the group of young males which had gathered around the table, literally at her feet, heartily cheering and encouraging her. He felt a sudden heat roared in his chest. Nodding some greetings along, he immediately made his way towards the pink haired, Sasuke following closely at heels.

Sakura only saw them when they reached her table. She smiled brightly as Naruto looked up at her. "N-Naruto! Sasuke!" she slurred heavily.

"Sakura-Chan, get down now," he murmured, reaching out to catch her hand and gently pulling her down.

"Show is over," growled Sasuke at the protesting gathering males. The cutting black eyes and the glacial aura emanating from the Uchiha immediately dispersed the small crowd.

"You are no fun!" she pouted, as Naruto helped her down the table.

"You're totally wasted," Sasuke said abruptly.

"Hey! It's a party. I'm having a blast!"

"You know that you can't hold alcohol," Naruto chided her. "How many did you have?"

It took very little to get her high, as they've discovered on her 20th birthday, the first time she had a drink. She had sung for hours at the top of her voice, screaming tunelessly until her voice got hoarse till the wee morning hours. They still teased her endlessly about it.

"Who cares?" Sakura giggled as she swayed into Naruto. She gave a loud hiccup, which threw her into another fit of giggles. "I'm having fun!"

Naruto smiled despite himself.

"There you are!" Ino loud voice boomed as she made her way across to them. "Better late than never!" she said happily, slapping the Hokage on his back. She was quite drunk herself, although still standing firmly on her feet.

"How many did she have?" Sasuke asked his eyes narrowed on Ino.

"My, my, very protective team-mate, aren't you?" Ino teased. Sasuke glared at her. She sighed, and looked at the madly giggling Sakura. "She just had three cups," she admitted. "It was all it took."

"I think it's time to get you home," Naruto said a while later as Sakura was insisting to dance again. He knew that she would feel very embarrassed the next day when she sobered up, and though he felt very amused to see her in this state, giving him another opportunity to tease her for the next decade, he wanted to spare her the ordeal of facing the aftermath of her making too much of a fool of herself. "Let's go. I'll walk you home."

"I'm a big girl," exclaimed Sakura, annoyed, "and I don't need to be walked home!"

"Yeah, I can see that," replied Naruto, biting his lips to prevent himself from laughing as he watched her hilarious attempts to stand up from the chair without falling down. If she caught him laughing at her, she could very well sent him flying into the walls of the bar. She was drunk, not rendered powerless.

"I'm not drunk!" she insisted belligerently.

"Sure, Sakura-Chan," he murmured, deftly edging her towards the door. He turned to look at Sasuke expectantly.

Dark eyebrows rose. "You surely don't need help to carry such a feather weight?" Sasuke drawled, and returned back to his drink.

Quickly saying his good-byes to Ino, Naruto ushered Sakura outside. The cool, late night summer breeze was refreshing. She stumbled, and he encircled her waist with one arm to support her. Even with her mind being drunk fuzzy and her advanced tipsy state, Sakura felt a tingle going up her spine at the warm contact of his arm around her.

"I can walk by myself!" she protested and tried to wiggle off.

With a sigh, Naruto released her waist, but still held to her arm. "Sakura-Chan, the quicker we go, the faster we'll reach your home," he patiently told her.

But she was not listening to him. "Ooh, the shiny stars!" she exclaimed, looking up at the sky. And immediately swayed again. "The sky is moving!" she giggled.

Without another word, he swung her up in his arms.

"Oops!" she cried out, flinging both her arms around his neck.

"It'll be quicker this way," he told her firmly.

"Okay," she agreed meekly.

_She's still as light as ever,_ Naruto thought as he settled her in his arms. She hoisted her head high up to his shoulder, and her warm, sake scented breath teased the sensitive skin at the crook of his neck, causing a slight shiver to go through him. Pushing some chakra at his soles, he made some swift jumps on the deserted road. Her home was not far, they would be there in a couple of jumps at most.

"Na-ru-to." The whispery, sultry way she said his name in his ear, drawing out each syllable almost languorously, made his heart flutter.

"Yes, Sakura-Chan?" he replied, keeping his voice level and concentrating on keeping his steps safely on the road. Another bounce and they'll be at her doorstep.

"Will you give me a kiss?"

Naruto missed his step, and almost stumbled to a fall. He looked down at her. "Sakura..?" he gulped, eyes wide, forgetting to breathe. He surely has misheard..?

She giggled and drew her head back a little to have a better look at his face. "You know," she hiccupped, "the famous goodnight kiss that a boy gives to a girl?"

He stared into the green, innocent, sake dazed eyes which looked up at him. Recovering from his shock, he wordlessly steered his concentration back to the road, not having the slightest idea how to respond. He knew it was the sake speaking. _There was absolutely no way that a sober Sakura would have made such a suggestion,_ he thought ruefully.

The next bounce brought him to her apartment building, and he swiftly climbed the stairs to reach her door, carrying the precious load carefully.

"Here we are," he said. Giving a nervous chuckle, he looked away from those lovely green eyes. "You're home now."

But she did not remove her arms from his neck, and he could not put her down.

"What about my goodnight kiss?" she repeated, attempting to smile enticingly, her words heavily slurred.

"Err…" he stammered, his mind racing for what to do. He started by gingerly putting her on her feet. She swayed, and had her hands not still been around his neck, she would have fallen.

"The ground is still moving," she giggled, "and you are not replying!" she pouted.

"Sakura…" he murmured tightly. Her soft body so close to his as she clung to his neck was making his heart hammering in his chest and doing terrible things to his sanity.

Sakura raised her head to look up at him. "You've become so tall…"she whined, frowning. "How come you have grown so tall?"

A tender smile crept his lips as he watched her mulish frown, the beloved forehead tantalizing him. _She's stoned_, he admonished himself. _You are the one in control here._ Taking a deep breath and getting a grip of himself, he gently stepped back from her, gently disentangling her arms from his neck, while supporting her by the waist.

"Sakura-Chan, give me your keys."

"And then you'll kiss me?" she slurred. "I've never kissed a boy, you know," she pouted. "Ino keeps reminding me about it."

Eyeing his lips pointedly, she hoisted her face towards him, while smiling beguilingly. Naruto looked at the alluring, pink lips angling towards him. He felt paralyzed to the spot. His dream girl was all for kissing him right now; it only remained for him to respond to the invitation. But looking once again into those sweet boozed up eyes, he could not bring himself to do it. She was drunk, and however much he longed and craved to feel those lips of hers, he did not want it to be when she would forget it the next day; he wanted their first kiss to be when she would be clear headed and would remember afterwards.

"Sakura-Chan," he said carefully, "Lets talk about this another time, ok?" She definitely was not in a state to understand the raging, potent longing burning through him right then.

"Naruto!" she wailed, "I want a kiss now, not some other times!" Wide, baleful eyes looked at him and she sniffled. "You are not attracted to me," she pouted. "It's okay, though. I knew it."

Had it been another setting, and another situation, he would have been delightfully amused by her look of the little girl being denied a candy. But as such, he was having a hard struggle to keep his control in check. "Sakura, you're totally wrong. And you're drunk right now, you don't know what you are doing," he murmured.

"No need to find excuses when you don't want to," she said dolefully, turning away from him. She swayed to the spot and started to fumble in her pouch for her keys.

Grasping her shoulder, he gently turned her back. "It's not excuses, Sakura-Chan."

"It is!" she said petulantly.

"When we kiss - and we _will_ kiss, I promise you that," his eyes flared as he said this, "I'll want you to be sober. I don't want you to forget our first kiss."

The green eyes still looked unconvinced. "You will kiss me? Promise?" Her tone was getting more slurred by the second.

His heartbeat sped even more. "Promise," he said solemnly.

She smiled brightly. The next instant, she was crumbling towards the ground, and he managed to catch her on time before she hit the floor. "Promise of a lifetime?" she asked before passing out.

"Promise of a lifetime," he chuckled, looking down tenderly at her as he hoisted her up.

Searching in her pouch, he found her keys, and balancing her in his arms, he opened the door and carried her directly to her bedroom. He carefully placed her on her bed. She did not even budge when he laid her down, totally dead to the world. She looked so vulnerable, asleep, and he smoothed a bang away from her forehead. He removed her boots, and pulled up a blanket over her; she liked having her blanket over her, however warm the temperature was.

That was all he could do, he thought. She would have to sleep in her clothes; they did not seem to be uncomfortable anyway. Giving the sleeping Kunoichi a last glance, he left the room, and exited the apartment. He locked the door from outside, and glide the keys back inside though the thin slot between the door and the floor, hoping that she will have the idea to look down on the floor for her keys.

His heart was still drumming in his chest as he made his way home, not in the mood to return back to the bar. His mind could not shake off her heatedly whispered words, and he could still feel her warmth against him, his body was still pulsing with reaction.

His rational side knew that he made the right decision. This was not any girl; this was Sakura. He had too much feelings invested in this to act bashfully. But still, he was human and a _very_ horny male; and he was already regretting his noble act of not taken up the invitation to kiss her, the girl who he yearned for so much, whom he was always dreaming about.

_I need a cold shower,_ he groaned. _Definitely a very long, very cold one._

XOXOX

The beep of her alarm broke through Sakura's drugged mind. She winced at the insistent beeping, and as she awoke from her sleeping state, she felt engulfed by a splitting headache. At the same time, she became aware of the horrible taste in her mouth, her tongue feeling awfully parched and felt as if it has tripled in thickness.

Groaning, she blindly groped her side stand until she found the offending alarm clock, and with a tap, stopped it. Slowly, painfully, she opened her eyes, the intensity of the light swarming to her eyes worsening her headache. It took some long seconds to get her bearings, and as she slowly regained her senses, part of the night's memories came to her.

Ino's birthday party.

The last thing she remembered was taking the third cup of sake. She groaned as she closed here eyes again. She had been drunk. And now she was dealing with a massive hangover. She felt nausea welling up her throat, her previous meal rushing up. Her headache surged when she sat up and swung her foot down from the bed to make a dash at the bathroom, making it just on time and she emptied her stomach in her wash basin.

She cursed as splashed some cold water over her face. How could she have let herself drink again when she knew that she had very little resistance to alcohol? She thought, despaired, as her head ache was far from dissipating. It was as if a hammer was being banged in her brains. Peering painfully at the mirror, she saw that she looked as awful as she was feeling: drawn and red eyes, sallow skin, white lifeless lips. She opened her cabinet to look for aspirin, which she gulped down as soon as she managed to put her hands onto. If she went by the last and only time she got drunk, it would take hours for her hangover to go.

She tried to recall the night's event, but everything was a blank haze after that third cup of sake. She felt a nervous pit in her stomach, a feeling of doom which she could not shake off; as if she should remember something very important, but could not. She frowned, racking her brains to remember, but was drawn to a blank. Straining her mind was making her headache worse, so she gave up.

Two large cups of black coffee, a thorough teeth brushing and a long shower later, Sakura was feeling much better. The aspirin had taken its effect, her head-ache had subdued, though not disappeared. Toweling her hair, she again tried to recall anything of the past night, but still nothing than some vague, blurred recollections came to her. She remembered badly wanting to dance. Did she dance? She suddenly cringed in embarrassment. She hoped that she had not done anything similar to singing at the top of her voice on her 20th birthday.

She also remembered Naruto accompanying her home. He must have tucked her in, because her boots were neatly arranged by her door. But for the life of her she could not remembered what they had talked about. She suddenly felt uneasy. She hoped that she had not babbled anything stupid, what with her recent state of mind when she was around him. She swallowed in nervousness.

As she set out for work, she found her keys on the floor by her door. She smiled, touched by Naruto's thoughtfulness.

XOXOX

"I did WHAT?"

"Ow, ow, don't scream in my ear, Forehead!" Ino groaned painfully.

The Yamanaka girl was dealing with a massive hangover herself. She did not have any mission lined up for the day, and she had been planning a late morning in, but the early visit of her pink haired friend had dragged her out of her bed much more earlier than she had wished.

"Why didn't you stop me?" Sakura wailed, making Ino wince.

"You were really adamant about climbing up that table to dance!" Ino protested defensively. "And you know how you are when you put your mind to something!"

Sakura palmed her face, distraught. She had made a quick detour to visit Ino, wanting to know what she could not remember of the night. And now she was burning with mortification when Ino told her that she had been _dancing on top of a table_. It was definitely worst that singing at the top of her voice! _That's it,_ she thought. _I solemnly swear that I will not drink sake again. Not ever._

"Hey, Forehead, it's no big deal. It was mostly our friends present."

Giving a resigned sigh, Sakura finally nodded. It was true; dancing on top of the table among mostly friends was mortifying enough, but not the end of the world. She then looked suspiciously at the blond. "Did you ask Naruto to accompany me home?" she asked.

"No, he himself proposed to," Ino assured her. As Sakura continued to look unconvinced, she waved her hands in front of her. "I swear!"

Sakura gave a sigh.

"Why, did anything happen?" asked Ino, excited curiosity dancing in her eyes.

"No!"

"How can you be so sure? You don't remember anything anyway, right?"

Sakura shot her a withering glare. "Because this is Naruto we are talking about, and I have total trust in him!"

"I was more thinking about _you_ doing something, Forehead. Not him."

"Ino!" Sakura growled, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance. Inside, though, she had some misgivings. But surely she was dramatizing, worrying senselessly over nothing. "I need to go now," she told her friend, and quickly left, feeling the need to hide herself in her work.

XOXOX

Sakura dropped her bone-tired body into her chair. She wearily rubbed her aching temples. Unsurprisingly, it had been another hectic day – when was it actually that they have had a calm days since the war anyway – and her lingering hangover had not helped. Her class had been particularly difficult today, her students had seemed slow. Then, right after the class, she had had to tend to a badly injured Jounin, which had taken a full one hour intricate chakra healing.

"I'll complete the report by this afternoon, Haruno-san," Yuki, who had followed her in the office, said.

"Thanks, Yuki." Glancing at the clock, Sakura saw that it was already 4:00 in the afternoon. Still two more hours for her shift to be over, unless there was another emergency cropping up. "Let's go over that briefing," she said, and they both set to work, Sakura briskly issuing instructions and Yuki taking notes.

"That seems to be it," Sakura said after one hour. She rolled her neck in the attempt to get rid of the growing crick on her neck.

A knock brought both women's heads to rise. At Sakura's "Come in," the door opened to reveal Naruto.

"Hokage-sama!" Yuki was quick to her feet as she greeted him.

"Yuki-san." Naruto smiled warmly at the girl, who immediately blushed.

"Naruto? What brings you here?" Sakura felt a sliver of uneasiness running through her.

"Hey, Sakura-Chan. Am I interrupting anything?" he deftly avoided her question.

"Oh, we're done already," Yuki breathlessly put in before Sakura could place a word. "I was just about to leave." She smiled widely and gathered her stock of reports.

Sakura swallowed. She did not want to be left alone with him, added to that, she felt the uncertainty of the morning come back in full fledge. Chiding herself, and short of finding an immediate excuse to keep Yuki, which her sudden dead brain could not conjure up, she had no choice but to let the young girl go.

"See you tomorrow, Haruno-san!" With a bow to Naruto, the young girl left.

"Tough day?"

Naruto's soft query brought her back from her almost desperate contemplation of the now closed door through which her assistant had just left. She steeled herself and looked up to meet warm, blue eyes watching her closely.

"Yeah." Not being able to bear the suspense, she decided to open the subject herself. "Thank you for getting me home last night. I'm sorry to have been such a hassle."

"It was no hassle, Sakura-Chan. You know you're never a hassle to me."

She hid her nervously twisting hands underneath her desk. "I hope I didn't make a nuisance of myself?" she probed.

Blue eyes danced with amusement. "No, you didn't," he replied, and she relaxed.

She gave a loud sigh. "Well, for sure this is the last time that I touch alcohol," she grumbled. "I made such an ass of myself; Ino told me that I danced on the table!" She still felt mortified as she thought about it.

He gave an amused chuckle. "It wasn't that bad," he said, an air of mischief surrounding him. He stalked the edge of her desk.

She eyed him suspiciously, not liking the mischievous look on his face. "So, what brings you here?" she asked again.

"A promise to fulfill," he replied solemnly.

She blinked. "A promise to fulfill?" she repeated dumbly.

"Hum. A promise of a lifetime." His eyes was cheerfully devious, his cheeky grin impish.

Her eyebrows almost touched in an enquiring frown as she watched him edging towards her seat. "What do you mean?" she asked nervously, tensing in alert.

He had something up his sleeve, she was certain of what. Was he planning a prank on her? He came to stand in front of her chair, and she felt a shiver of jitters running down her back as she looked up at him. Before she could utter another word, he wrapped both his hands around her upper arms, and in one smooth, strong sweep, brought her to a standing position.

"WhatMMMmm!"

Sakura's brain froze up on her. She stiffened, for one shocking second not comprehending what was happening. Then, as her senses rushed back to her system, her eyes widened, almost taking up her whole face and realization dug in.

He was kissing her! Naruto was kissing her… On the lips.

As her paralyzed brain registered the fact, she became acutely aware of firm, searching chapped lips hotly molding her own. His one arm encircling her waist, pinning her close to him, and the other had crept up to her face, the fingers slightly calloused on her cheek. Her own hands laid limply by her sides, shock having immobilized them. She felt the blood rushed away from her head, making her feel dizzy. All her senses zoomed on the burning contact of his lips on hers…the slow, probing movements, beneath which her own quivering lips seemed to have softened to accommodate his harder, sensually searching ones.

The kiss was brief; she felt his hot tongue caressing her bottom lip once, and before she had recovered sufficiently to react, he pulled his head back. The half lidded, darkened blue eyes surveyed her, his breathing shallow.

"You're supposed to close your eyes, you know!" His wry, unsteady voice reached through her foggy haze.

She gasped for air, realizing that she had been holding her breath the whole time. As she did so, her nose was filled with his warm, unique scent.

He slowly lowered his hand from her cheek, but still kept the arm around her, his face close enough to hers that she could feel his warm breath on her face. She was sure her legs would have caved in had he not still held her.

She felt a wild rush of blood flooding her face. "W-what was that about?" she choked in a breathy whisper.

He took a slow step back, releasing her. "A promise fulfilled," he chuckled huskily, looking triumphant and pleased with himself; but at the same time nervously edging away from her, fearing a probable punch.

But she stood frozen, and looked at him blankly, her mouth hanging open. She was still trying to assimilate the fact that _Naruto_ had _kissed_ her; at the same time trying to juggle with comprehension of what he was saying.

Light clicked in her mind suddenly. "Something happened last night didn't it?" she squeaked out with a mounting realization. "I must have done something…stupid!"

"Not stupid," he assured her, his eyes taking a teasing glint again. "Definitely not stupid. I'll leave now! Bye, Sakura-Chan."

And he left her planted there, face crimson, eyes wide, heart drumming, her nose still filled with his scent, and the imprint of his lips still lingering on her own.

He _did_ taste like ramen, was her unbidden thought as she unconsciously moistened her dry lips with her tongue, and it was _delicious_.

XOXOX

_That had been much less scary than I had expected,_ Naruto thought gleefully as he practically sailed out of the office. He was out of there limbs still intact. She had not knocked him off the walls off Konoha, as he had feared.

Uzumaki Naruto has kissed Haruno Sakura, and was still alive to tell it.

Granted, it had been a very brief kiss, but it was a _start_, and he felt exhilarated. His grin dazzled everybody who crossed him on his way out of the hospital. Everybody in Konoha was used to the bright smile of their Hokage, but the hospital staff was subjected to an even brighter smile and chirpier greeting than usual on that day, making them quirk their eyebrow in curiosity at what could have made the Rokudaime so _glowing_ with glee.

Naruto found himself nose to nose with Sasuke as soon as he exited the hospital.

"Teme! What's up?" he chirped brightly.

Sasuke observed the beaming face silently for a long minute. "Are you two finally official?" he asked abruptly.

"Huh?" Naruto blinked. "What are you talking about?" he chuckled almost nervously.

"You and Sakura," came the impatient reply.

"What? No!" Naruto spluttered, scratching the back of his neck. He peered at the usual stoic face of his friend. "What a queer question!"

"Your face look like a 100 watt lit bulb, you're smiling like a clown, and you're coming out of the hospital," Sasuke remarked patiently.

Naruto grimaced. Nothing escape the Uchiha's dark stare, it seemed. "No, we are not official." At Sasuke's impatient sigh, he added, "Yet."

Sasuke examined the blond's face again. "I won't even ask what happened to cause you to shine so, then," he drawled, as the two started to walk away.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: - The 6****th**** chapter had finally turned out to be so long that I decided to split in into two shorter chapters. So, finally, the story will be of 8 chapters instead of 7.**

**- Thanks again for all your encouraging reviews!**

XOXOX

The door of the Hokage's office burst open and a visibly furious Sakura marched in. No knocking, no warning.

"Why," she demanded without preamble, "did you do that?"

Two pairs of eyes, one cerulean blue and one onyx black looked with equal apprehension at the obviously enraged medic-nin.

"Time to leave, I think," said Sasuke hurriedly. He had a small, or rather a huge idea what the Hokage had done to have resulted in the wrath of their former team-mate, and he certainly did not want to be in the crossfire between these two.

Naruto glared at his friend. "Traitor!" he mouthed as the Uchiha scampered away.

The latter smirked, making a cutting throat action as he reached behind Sakura, action which the very much incensed medic-nin did not see, before he disappeared. The Uchiha had absolutely zero doubt about the outcome of this 'visit'.

The flashing green eyes pinning onto the Hokage did not bode anything good, and Naruto inwardly winced. He had been expecting and apprehending this visit.

"Hello Sakura-Chan," he stalled.

"Don't you dare hello me, Uzumaki Naruto," she growled angrily. "What are your intentions?" She planted both hands on the surface of his desk and leant forward menacingly.

He instinctively edged his chair back. "My intentions?" he repeated, bracing himself mentally.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about," she gritted through clenched teeth.

His eyes were drawn despite himself to her lithe figure which was put into advantage by her angry cat posture; he could not help but stare appreciatively at the smooth arch of her back, even while being under the receiving end of her wrath. She had absolutely no idea how hot she looked at that precise moment, as she glowered, all fury, at him.

"Give me a valid reason why I'm not included in the Suna envoy," she demanded hotly.

_Here we are,_ he thought. "The fewer we travel, the better it would be," he said after brief pause.

Her eyes narrowed. "What?" she hissed.

Part of him was disappointed as she straightened up, the remaining part relieved that he was out of her reach; at least for the moment. He did not put it past her to still land a punch on him. He looked at her warily. He had, on purpose, sent out the travel mission scrolls to the envoy members as late as possible that afternoon, and thereby making official his departure to Suna only on the eve on the scheduled day, hoping that it would not give her _too_ much time to react and ponder on it. It did not mean that he had not been expecting her explosion, though.

He had already received the brief visit of an equally incensed Tsunade, dryly recalling the heated and ranted lecture he had received from the older woman. But it had been a mark of her respect for his leadership that the former Godaime had not pushed him to abandon the idea of traveling to Suna.

Now, looking at the angry face in front him, he carefully enacted his much rehearsed explanation. "It's safer this way, Sakura-Chan. The less people to go, the less we will be exposed to any imminent threat."

The green eyes staring at him incredulously contained all the outrage that she felt, and Naruto detected a flash of hurt as well, which made him feel worse.

Sakura had got the news of the visit to Suna from Tsunade, who had also been kept in the dark same as her. The younger medic-nin had been shocked to learn that Naruto had intended to go, despite all, to Suna - true, there had not been any more incident since the Kumo one, which was already more than two months ago, long enough to assume that things were safe - still, he had never confirmed his decision to go, and to learn about it only on the eve of his departure had been utterly disconcerting. But even more shocking and hurtful to her was that she had not been included in the envoy. She could not comprehend this decision of his; it had left her totally floored.

"Is it because of what happened the other day?" she rasped, looking away as she suddenly felt unable to meet his eyes. "Is it why I'm being excluded from this trip?"

She still felt mortified thinking what had brought about their…kiss, two days ago. She was not the smartest Kunoichi of her generation for nothing; she had put two and two together, and had concluded that she must have made some advances to him during her drunken stupor, and being Naruto, he must have refused and had had to placate her by making that stupid promise.

Fro a moment, Naruto looked blankly at her. Then it dawned to him what she was alluding to – their kiss. "No!" he immediately protested, "It's not_"

"Listen, I know I must have forced your hand, somehow," she cut in tightly. "It's a lame excuse, I know, but I was drunk. I-I sincerely apologize…But this should not affect our professional relationship." _Or our friendship,_ she thought.

His eyes widened, and he hurriedly got to his feet, agitated. "Sakura, don't! I assure you it's NOT that!" he said firmly. "I_"

A knock at the door sliced through the charged atmosphere. They both looked around to see Shikamaru standing at the opened doorway. Sakura had not closed the door when she had barged in, and Sasuke had been too busy running away to shut it behind him.

Shikamaru raised his eyebrow at the obvious tension sizzling between the two. "Should I come later?" he drawled.

"No, it's okay," Sakura rushed to say. She dearly hoped the Nara had not heard all of their conversation. Naruto ran a frustrated hand through his hair, urgently wanting – needing to convince her that she was totally wrong concerning the kiss, but could not do so in the presence of Shikamaru.

Turning back to him, she resumed their argument. "Then why? Why are you breaking your own rule of a medic-nin accompanying a mission outside the border of fire country?"

"Sakura-Chan, this hardly qualifies as a mission! It's just me going to Suna for the exams!"

"The Hokage traveling outside the border with a potential deadly enemy lurking qualifies more than any A rank mission," she retorted darkly.

Naruto was feeling helpless by the minute. "Shikamaru…" He looked at his friend desperately, wanting some help from his side.

The Nara, still standing at the doorway and carrying some files, looked like he wanted to be anywhere rather than here. He heaved a sigh. "How troublesome," he grumbled, before turning to Sakura with obvious reluctance. "HE," pointing towards Naruto, wanting to make it clear that he had not been agreeable with him, "feels that we should travel in the smallest group as possible to avoid the risk of increased casualties."

"Shikamaru!" Naruto protested, glaring at the betrayal.

"What? It's the truth!" Shikamaru drawled.

"Increased casualties?" Sakura repeated sharply.

Naruto turned to Sakura. "Sakura," he started, preparing for a long argument with her, but she looked at him, stricken-faced, and cut him.

"Okay," she said slowly. "I get it… "

Naruto stared at her open-mouthed, his eyebrows raised high, incredulous at her quick yielding. Shikamaru looked at the pink haired medic nin as incredulously. That had been too easy, both men thought.

"So," continued Sakura in a low voice, "I have not been included because either you think I'm too weak to form part of this envoy and I am the most apt to be the casualty of the mission," Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but she fired him a smoldering look, "or," she continued in a tight tone, and he closed his mouth again, "you feel that the others are less deserving of life and chose them to travel with you, if this is all about _protecting_ me," she finished.

Naruto blanched. He opened his mouth again, then thought better of it and closed it.

Shikamaru gave another long sigh. "Man. You _know_ you can never win an argument against them," he solemnly told Naruto, "why even bother?"

Sakura still glared at Naruto. "If this is such a dangerous mission that it cause you concern for me, then as your medic-nin, it's the more reason that I'm on this envoy, in case of any ambush."

Her sharp eyes did not miss the slight guilty start at the words. She frowned suspiciously. "You're up to something, aren't you?" she immediately pounced.

The silence which followed made Sakura certain that there was something being brewed up.

"We are planning to lure the enemy out," Naruto finally admitted, deciding that it was better he told her everything.

She gaped at him. "You're doing WHAT?"

Naruto grimaced at her strident tone. It was how he had been expecting. "I think it's better to draw them out and finish with this once for all."

She paled. "You're willingly being a bait?" she whispered, appalled.

"It's not really that he would be a bait. We just don't plan to conceal ourselves during the travel," explained Shikamaru. "We will not _avoid_ exposure."

Her heart skipped to her mouth as she think of the danger he was willingly putting himself on. _Of all the stupid …!_ She was angry. And scared. Very scared. And felt even more betrayed that he had excluded her in the confidence of such a dangerous, reckless plan. She studied his face, noting the obstinate resolve set there.

Her mind raced at the possibilities. She knew firsthand how stubborn Naruto could be when he has set his mind onto something; she doubted whether she would be able to convince him to drop this ridiculous, dangerous idea. Her best bet would be to ensure that she form part of the envoy. She needed to be in this mission at all cost; it was out of question that she would meekly stay back now.

"Can I change your mind about this?" she asked calmly; she owed it to herself to at least make an attempt.

"I don't want to have this threat lingering any longer," Naruto replied quietly.

"Then I'll form part of your envoy," she stated, her tone firm and irrevocable. "You cannot go against your own laws. You need a medic-nin in this mission, and unless you have a better medic-nin than me, such as Tsunade shishou, then you have to accept me along. This is your own written rules."

He opened his mouth, but she cut his words off again. "Don't find pathetic excuses not to take me along, Naruto."

Naruto looked at her silently, no immediate refutement coming to his mind.

Shikamaru sighed. "Her request is reasonable, Naruto. We have agreed to shoulder you in this; the least you have to do is have a medic-nin by your side. I'm having Ino on my team as our medic-nin."

Naruto's shoulders slumped in resignation. "Okay," he said, causing Sakura to breath with relief.

Seeing that an agreement had been reached, Shikamaru walked to the desk and deposited the files he was holding. "If you can have a look at this before this evening," he told Naruto, before turning to his heels to leave, making sure to close the door this time.

A heavy silence fell in the office after his departure. Sakura looked at Naruto and still felt deeply cut by his omitting her in all this.

"Were you really considering keeping me out of the loop till the end?" she finally asked quietly. It hurt to know that he did not trust her enough to share such a burden with her, that he did not have enough faith in her abilities.

Naruto gave a long sigh, raking his hand through his hair. "Is it so bad to want to protect my precious people?" he replied softly. "I am the Hokage. I want to protect my people, not the other way round."

The look she gave him was a mixture of exasperation and hurt. "I'm not a china doll, Naruto," she growled. "Please stop treating me like such. It's the worst insult you can give me. I feel like the pathetic weak girl I was years ago, when I was always watching yours and Sakuke's back, always lagging behind."

His eyes widened in dismay. "It wasn't my intention to make you feel insulted," he protested earnestly. "I didn't mean it to be this way; you _know_ it's not that." Then his face turned stern. "And it's utterly stupid if you still feel weak. You don't have anything to prove to anyone, anymore, certainly not to me, so you shouldn't feel insecure of your strength so easily!" he rasped. "It's just…I just didn't want you to stop me or put you in any type of risk – maybe it was selfish of me."

She searched his eyes and saw his genuine concern, her face softening finally. "Baka. We are _all_ your team, don't ever forget that. We have all worked hard to come here, so do give us some credit."

He gave a tentative, apologetic smile after a short silence, and nodded. "Sorry. I really am."

Sakura felt her anger ebbing away; as usual, she could not stay angry with him for long, not when he looked sat her with those dejected eyes. Eyes which had turned deep blue due to emotions.

Eyes which she had looked into so deeply, so close to her, two days ago.

With her anger abated and the issue of the mission cleared out of the way, Sakura felt suddenly flustered under his intent stare. The air shifted subtly, a jolt of electricity invading the room as they looked at each other. Trying hard not to fidget, she said, "I'll go now, I'll have to prepare for tomorrow," and turned to leave.

She barely touched the door knob when a hand shoot out and grasped her hand, halting her movement. "What_?" She jumped in surprise and snapped her head around, her shoulder bumping into hard chest in the process. He has moved so swiftly and silently that she had not sensed his movements at all.

"Wait," he beseeched, face grave and unsmiling.

Her eyes were wide as she turned fully to face him and his proximity made her take a step back by reflex, only to feel the door pressing against her. His warmth engulfed her and she felt the now familiar thrill shooting through her.

Naruto looked down at her, feeling nervous. He owed her a serious talk; he had so many things to say to her, words that he had dreamed of telling her since as far as he could remembered, but he suddenly felt tongue tied and his brain felt fuzzy and empty.

"Uhh…," he tried again, feeling terribly uptight and all wound up.

His mood was rubbing off her and she felt strangely anxious and restless too. She felt a heat creeping up her cheeks. "Naruto?" she said as the silence stretched, her voice coming out in a whisper.

"I think we have some unfinished discussion," he said finally, trying to smile but it came out as a grimace instead.

She looked mutely at him, her heartbeat speeding madly.

"I need to remove your delusion that I kissed you because I was _forced_ to," he said gruffly, his heart pounding in his chest, the words almost coming out in their own accords as he felt himself being drawn into those lovely, wide green eyes. He decided to follow his instincts, feeling that any words he would say would be superfluous. If he could not find the right words, then he would _show _her. He had always been best at demonstrations rather than explanations, anyway.

This time, she could not claim that he took her by surprise. Things seemed to be moving in slow motion as he bent his face towards her, and she automatically closed her eyes, a shaky sigh escaping her as he claimed her lips in a kiss. And he was kissing her as nothing like the previous kiss, kissing her as if there was no tomorrow.

She knew she should stop him; she knew she was supposed to protest. But she could do none of these. She was done making herself crazy denying her emotions; she knew that she wanted more than she deserved, but she needed this, she needed to feel him, the warmth which she had been close to since long but not been allowed or able to savor.

With a ragged gasp, she stepped into him and gave in to his hot, searching lips. And she was kissing him back, and it was blissful oblivion. Everything melted away; the threat of the enemy, the deep confusion of the past weeks, the yearning of the past years. There were only them, enveloped in each other's warmth and their feverish exploration of each others lips. He gently nibbled her lower lip and she reflexively gasped. It was all he needed to gain access, and his tongue set out for a thorough exploration of her mouth, tasting her, feeling her. He kissed like he was in actual life: enthusiastic, passionate, vigorous, and a tad bit clumsy. But she was far from complaining, as she tried to match his movements as clumsily as him, setting out to an initially timid, then gradually a bolder exploration of her own.

They had to pull back for air eventually, both of them breathing hard, speechless, and she was still in the process of catching her breath and trying to recollect her chaotic senses when he lean in again for her mouth, impatient and hungry, and she responded as eagerly. This second time round they had got the grasp of things; their heads had angled so that their nose was not colliding, tongues caressed each other with more confidence and expertise. She was sagged against the solid wall of his chest, her knees weak, her hands tangled in the soft blond hair; his hands moved down her back, waist and hips, shaping her feminine soft form to the hard contours of his body. Arching her back, she strained even closer, a molten fire burning in the pit of her stomach, her heart pounding like thunder in her chest while her mind whirled at his unmistaken arousal she felt against her belly. It was not clear who whimpered as the temperature instantly spiked up.

A sharp knock at the door, resonating high as her back was against the wood, abruptly brought them back to the surface, and they jumped apart. Naruto growled in protest, not wanting to come out of this wonderful bliss, needing to feel her again. He stared shakily at the wide tremulous emerald eyes looking up him, noting the flushed face and the quivering, swollen lips, his own heart racing madly and his breathing jagged. The knock repeated, insistently this time, and however much he wanted to ignore the knock, the moment was broken.

He badly wanted to say something, though he hardly knew what, but she had already moved, away from the door and further from him, and was jerkily smoothing her top.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he moved to his desk and looked back at her to ensure that she has recovered her composure; then called a 'Come in,' in a quite unsteady voice.

It was Kakashi. "You called for me," their former sensei said lazily after greeting both of them.

Naruto had indeed asked his secretary to get Kakashi earlier, but he still cursed the horrible timing of the older man's arrival. Said man observed his two former students keenly. He knew them long enough to know that they were not in their usual state; the electricity in the air was almost palpable

"I'll leave now," Sakura quickly said, and almost fled from the office.

Kakashi looked at Naruto, the visible eye glinting mischievously. "Did I interrupt something?"

A blush crept up Naruto's cheeks. "She came enquiring why she did not form part of the envoy," he quickly explained, "and she was angry." He hoped his old sensei would accept this to be the cause of their harried state.

"Oh. And?"

"And I finally agreed that she accompany us."

"Hmm." It was no surprise to Kakashi to learn that. He knew all along that one way or another, Sakura would form part of the trip.

Looking at the deep blush in the Hokage's cheeks, he wondered whether his plan, along with the help of Anko, had born fruit. It had been a very long shot - his plan had been based on many assumptions and the deep understanding he had of his two former students. But Kakashi had not been known to be the brightest of his generation for nothing. Usually, his plans, however far fetched, had good success rates.

The first hurdle had been to get Sakura to agree to have a drink – she had firmly stayed away from sake since her 20th birthday incident. Then, he had counted on Naruto wanting to accompany her home in the probable success of getting her drunk, and this had been the easiest part; Naruto would not have let anybody else accompany her in that state. And finally, he had gambled that Sakura would unload what would be in her mind – she did that the first time she got drunk on the 20th birthday, speaking out whatever was in her mind at that particular moment. He had specifically asked Anko to talk about men while sharing a drink with her, so that the last subject on the medic-nin's drunken mind would have hopefully been Naruto. From there, logically, things would have taken a step forward.

Yes, it had been a very long shot, but at least he could not be accused of cheating, not with that twisted, indirect approach. Anko was the only one to have been in the confidence, because he had needed her to give the first push of what he hopefully considered to be a domino effect. But he had no way of knowing yet whether he had succeeded; there had been no hint about the two having progressed into something. He gave a deep sigh.

"I need to discuss some details about tomorrow with you," Naruto said, the long night full of last minute meetings looming up ahead and the two settled down for a talk.

XOXOX

Naruto was warmly surprised at the crowd which had gathered to see him off the next day, early morning. A huge part of the inhabitants has massed at the gates, all cheering and sending warm wishes of safe trip to their beloved Hokage.

"Be safe, Hokage-sama!"

"Get back soon, Hokage-sama!"

"We will miss you, Hokage-sama!"

The acclamations touched him at his profoundest core, and he gave his usual, bright smile to his people as he waved at them. His team, comprising of Sakura, Sasuke, Sai, Neiji, Kiba with of course Akamaru tagging along, and a masked ANBU, stood ready by his side. No-one in the group had been surprised to learn that Sakura was finally included in the mission; they had been telling the Hokage that he would not be able to exclude her, and he had been stubbornly refusing to heed them. Some lessons are better learnt than told, each of them thought smugly.

Tsunade was at the forefront of the crowd, and she looked at the young Hokage with an uneasy heart as they stood face to face, a slight worried frown etched on her forehead. "Be careful," she told him. She felt a nervous clench in her stomach. "Don't be reckless," she warned sternly.

"We'll be fine, Baa-Chan," he replied, smiling reassuringly. "Take good care of the village." She will be the acting Hokage under his absence. "And try to be sober from time to time while you do so," he teased, earning a glare from her as her eyebrow twitched.

He laughingly hurried away, least of receiving one of her deadly finger flick, and Tsunade moved towards Sakura.

"We leave now, shishou," Sakura said, bowing to her former master.

Tsunade took the younger girl's hands in hers, as if wanting to impart her strength to her. She herself might not be able to accompany Naruto, but she felt she was sending part of her within her apprentice. "Protect him, Sakura," she whispered, voice laced with anxiety.

Sakura looked into the hazel eyes, noting the deep worry in there. It was not often that the last of the legendary Sannin showed her anxiety so openly, and Sakura knew that she must be _very_ worried to have displayed it to her like that.

"Don't worry, shishou, I will," Sakura replied quietly, the green eyes resolved as she gave a reassuring squeeze to the older woman's hands, before following the others they moved out.

A carriage awaited outside the gates; carriage whose wheels were enhanced by chakra and pulled by two black horses. It had been part of Shikamaru's plan that Naruto made use the formal transportation system for Hokages, even though it would have been quicker and more practical that they traveled by the usual tree-hopping method. Naruto had not been too keen about the idea, but Shikamaru had insisted that on top of adding to the baiting aspect, the enclosed space would provide less exposure to the Hokage and in case they were attacked, they would at least have some minutes to react.

Sakura walked towards Naruto as he made to hop in the carriage, and their eyes crossed. With the rush of the crowd at the gates and the farewells fervor, they had barely exchanged any words apart from a hurried greeting, and now, green eyes locked with blue eyes almost timidly, both wary of each other's reaction in the face of the bright morning light. The eyelock lingered, Sakura unable to look away despite herself, and the inevitable memory of the shared heated moment of the previous evening flared in both green and blue eyes.

A tingle rushed up Sakura's spine and she felt a moment of confused panic as she did not know which countenance to adopt, despite the long hours of self lecture she had subjected herself during the restless night.

She was still mentally teetering on the stay or flight mode when Naruto dropped one eye in a cheesy wink; and what she could only describe as the most wickedly seductive smile she had ever been subjected to curving up his lips, the blue eyes alight and dancing in the knowing delight of the secret intimacy they now shared.

She felt her stomach flip and she blushed furiously before quickly looking away. _Surely the baka had better sense than to fool around during such a …such a serious time?_ She thought, taking refuge in her defensive mode, eyebrow twitching, heart beating madly and very much flustered despite herself. She scowled, firmly chasing the butterflies away from her chest. _It would NOT do to get all jittery right now!_ She admonished herself. This was a mission where ALL her professionalism was needed, and she would not give in to his game.

Taking a deep breath, she schooled her features into her most prim, hardcore don't-mess-with-me-expression and marched stiff straight, head held haughtily high.

Naruto's grin widened as he watched her, knowing what was going through in her mind right then, the resolved and stern face so familiar, expression which he knew only too well having been her teammate: she has turned herself into 100% ninja mode, and Kami spare the poor soul who would dare come across her path right then.

He had been closely and furtively observing her since they had met at the gates, and he felt elated that although she looked flustered and confused, she did not look angry or repulsed. His heart glowed happily at the implications. He _definitely_ had a chance. And if he went by her reaction and response to their kiss, he knew that she was not adverse to his advances. Despite his inexperience in the physical intimacy area, he had certainly not missed how she melted in his arms, and he gave a smug inner grin. He so looked forward to their next, umm…escapade.

Well, it would be foolish to do anything right now, during the mission, and knowing the mood she was in and how on edge she was when it concerned his safety, he would be in for a good chakra enhanced punch if he goofed around. They had the whole time after the mission to work on their story; maybe when they were in Suna…his smile got dreamy as he thought ahead.

At least their easy camaraderie was still in place and he was still her familiar friend, Sakura thought, as they walked out of the gates and into the forest surrounding Konoha, his smile still warmly imprinted in her mind. She had been terrified about the possibility having an uncomfortable barrier between them. Relieved, she resolutely cleared her mind from all personal thoughts, as she had firmly drilled into her mind during the night.

XOXOX

Kiba and Akamaru opened the cortege, being quite a few paces in front; Sakura and the cat masked ANBU stayed close to the carriage, on each side of it; Neiji closed the trail, his 360 degrees vision ensuring that their back was covered; Sai was overhead riding his ink eagle, and Sasuke stayed up in the trees, out of sight and scouring the area.

The second team – the decoy team with a Kage Bunshin as false Hokage, had already anonymously left the village in the dark hours of the morning, and awaited somewhere in the forest to take the route which Shikamaru had planned onto. It consisted of Kakashi, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, and at Kakashi's suggestion, two ANBUs henged as Sakura and Sasuke, assuming that the enemy would have enough intel on them to know that the two would travel with Naruto.

The routes Shikamaru had derived for the two groups were far enough from each other that it did not raise suspicions, yet it was close enough to be within swift reachable distance in the case one of them needed help. They had decided against using radio communication in case their wavelength would be intercepted, instead, Naruto's clone was to act as communicating link: it would be dispelled in case of being attacked and the real Naruto would get the information needed.

The pace of the travel and the camping place had been minutiously worked out by Shikamaru, so each team had an idea about each other's location at a specific time. As an added precaution, Naruto had left a three pronged kunai with the Hirashin seal with Kakashi, ordering him to summon him in case needed.

XOXOX

They had traveled only half a day when Naruto was already bored out of his mind. When he had agreed to Shikamaru's idea about traveling by carriage, he had not really foreseen the boredom that would come with it, to sit idly and just admire the scenery, doing nothing, literally.

"Should I really sit in this thing during the whole travel?" he grumbled as Sakura appeared by the door of the carriage to check on him, chakra propelling her at the feet as she ran at the same pace as the carriage. "I feel so …so like a helpless princess!" he blurted out.

Sakura pursed her lips to prevent herself from laughing. "It's the way it is," she said with an eyeroll. She had been expecting his complaints – such inactivity from his hyperactive nature would have bore him sooner or later, and they had barely made one sixth of the journey.

"Why should Hokages travel in carriages, anyway?" he sighed.

"Will you quit complaining? All this was YOUR idea, right, to be the center of attraction to lure the enemy out?" she said mock sweetly.

He mumbled an intelligible reply before looking at her, eyes hopeful. "Why don't you hop in to keep me company," he asked coaxingly.

"I'm supposed to be guarding you, not keeping you company."

"Just for a little while won't hurt!"

"Enjoy your ride!" She quipped and sped a few pace ahead, leaving him looking forlornly at her back.

She needed to keep all her wits with her, and riding in the enclosed carriage with him, alone, right after the past night's episode and with her current state of mind, certainly did not qualify as the best setting for that.

XOXOX

It was the second night, and the team had set camp near a small stream. There had been nothing to report; the journey had been uneventful so far. The decoy team seemed to have had a similar result since Naruto's Kage Bunshin was still active. Sasuke, same as for the previous night, has set a network of meshed barrier of chakra threads all around the perimeter; no living thing – human or animal - could get past the barrier without the alarm being raised.

Naruto sat meditating at the edge of the stream, collecting nature chakra to be in sage mode. He has done so at each rest, to probe about their environment for any potential foreign chakra signature – which had been negative so far. The atmosphere seemed to be quietly peaceful on the outside, but it was just a deceptive appearance, since each team member was to their fullest alert. It was Neiji's turn to be on guard, while the others rested.

Sakura watched Naruto. Having a small free moment, she felt her mind drifting. Naruto had not made any move for personal conversation, and she was thankful for it, not wanting anything to shake her guard. To say her mind was in total confusion was an understatement. They had kissed. Twice. And that she had loved it and craved to jump back in the haven of those arms was another understatement.

But two kisses did not automatically mean they had a story going on, and she had absolutely no idea where that left them. She badly needed answers, but again, being surrounded by other people was not the ideal setting to have any private talk. _And it's definitely not the time,_ she chided herself again, dragging her thoughts and attention back to the present. Her sole concentration should be on the mission; they were expecting an attack any time, now was definitely not the time to be distracted by thoughts about her emotional life. It would be pathetic if after her insistence to be included in the mission she was to become a liability due to her not focusing her attention where it should.

She would think about all this after the Chunin exams, when they are back safe in Konoha. Hopefully, she would get her answers then. This was her and Naruto, afterall, they shared a deep history; this was no game. But for the next week, her sole concentration should be on her immediate task – that to protect their Hokage – at all cost.

XOXOX

"Another hour or so and we'll be out of the forest," Kiba's voice rang out from far ahead. Akamaru's woof immediately echoed his master. They still kept the planned formation, and were to keep it until the end of the travel.

"It was high time," came Naruto's relieved voice as he poke his blond head out of the carriage.

The scene had been the same monotonous green forest environment since they had set out three days ago, and the idea of a break on the scene was a welcoming one. They would soon enter the no-man's land between the Land of Fire and Land of Wind, leaving the lush green forestation to enter barren, dried up desert. Only about half day travel was left to reach Suna. The risk of ambush was greatly diminished since the possibilities to hide in the flat sandy landscape were practically nil. Naruto's bunshin still held steadfast in the decoy team, so it means that they had not met with anyone either.

It was quite an anticlimactic feeling, what with the high alert in which they had geared themselves when setting out.

XOXOX

They barely entered the deserted area when they were surprised by a sandstorm. The whole party was engulfed in a furious mass of swirling sand, and visibility became completely nil. It was not unusual to have sandstorms in this region, but the sky had been clear blue, not foreseeing any storms.

Even as each one of them became suspicious, Sakura, Neiji and the ANBU, the three sticking close to the carriage, froze. Literally. Their limbs were suddenly stuck rigid. They were incapable of further movements, their whole body statued to the ground; even the two horses stood frigid like statues, the carriage having halted -

_ then, as if materializing out of thin air, at least a dozen of figures appeared around them; figures which Neiji had not detected with his activated Byakugan, presence which Kiba and Akamaru had not sensed -

_ at the same instantaneous time, a huge, chakra enhanced fuzzy dome erupted over them, encasing in the carriage and its occupant and the three statued Konoha shinobis, and the false storm stopped.

Sai, who was high above in his eagle, immediately swooped down, while at the same time Sasuke, who had been keeping his usual distance, dashed towards the dome, Kiba and Akamaru following suit. But with a bang they all bounced off the dome, unable to reach their frozen friends, and they watched, horrified, through the hazy but still transparent enough dome as their statued friends were surrounded by the numerous figures which could only be the enemy –

_ figures which stood on the outline of a vast, queer drawing on the sand which looked like a pentagram, which had not been there previously, which clearly had been hidden under the sand and the sandstorm had revealed_ pentagram onto which the envoy had walked right onto, oblivious, and which seemed to be holding them tight to the spot, incapable of any movements.

"We've been ambushed!" The horrifying thought flitted through Sakura's mind as her heart pounded in her chest, her mouth opened in a silent scream, as, added to the loss of usage of her body, she had also lost her voice; at the same time the three Konohan shinobis plus dog outside the dome were launching powerful assaults upon assaults on the unyielding wall of the dome, trying desperately to reach their trapped friends.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Okay, this was by far the most difficult chapter that I had to write as this is mostly action based, and I am pathetic at writing fighting scenes and I'm still not happy at the result; but I've lagged enough with it and just have to post it otherwise it'll remain in my pc for ever. I ask for your indulgence :****( I have cheated by skipping out on the fights totally in some cases, and I apologise in advance for that, but I'm helpless. **

XOXOX

"We've been ambushed!" the horrifying thought flitted through Sakura's mind.

Everything had had been so simultaneous and happened in the blink of an eye - their immobility, the dome encasing them and the appearance of the enemy - that her brain was still in the throes of _assimilating_ the fact. She stood completely paralyzed; everything seemed fuzzy and slow as the dozen or so figures blurred around them before settling on a circular perimeter around them, close to the dome wall.

Her first thought was that it could all be a genjutsu; it was so highly improbable and unbelievable that all these people had been undetected by Kiba's and Akamaru's unfailing nose, or unlocated by Neiji's Byakugan. Concentrating hard, she stopped her chakra flow to immediately follow it by an even stronger flow by silently thinking "Kai"– the usual drill to counter a genjutsu; but she still remained perfectly statued.

She flared her chakra into her limbs trying to outforce the invisible force retaining her, but even her monstrously powerful strength could not counteract the paralyzing effect. It reminded her of the Nara's Kagemane no Jutsu, the only marked difference was that she could see no shadow binding her and she had lost even the use of her voice. At least she had the full faculty of her brains and still had analyzing, rational thoughts; as rational as their horrible predicament allowed her to have.

Desperate and with a mounting urgency, she tried her senses, checking each of them out. She could see, though she could not move her eyeballs, they were as rigidly still as the rest of her, her unblinking vision frozen ahead in front of her and providing her with barely 120 degrees view. In her limited field of vision she could only see four people standing side by side, in equal distances from each other; men or women she could not tell because of the white, shapeless hooded garb and face masks they all wore. Beyond and above them was the fuzzy chakra wall; no Kiba and Akamaru in sight. Considering that had been in front of her all the time and judging by the distance of the wall, she quickly deduced that the two had not been trapped within the dome.

She could hear muffled shouts, bangs and crashes which seemed to be coming from far; it must be the others trying to get in the dome, she realized as she heard faint yells of "Getsuga!" which preceded some of the bangs. In contrast to the faint ruckus coming from outside, an eerie, frightening silence reigned inside the dome. The cloaked figures stood still and watched the paralyzed Konohans silently.

She could vaguely discern the image of the two horses at the right periphery of her vision, frozen as well, and the carriage was tomb silent behind them. Her terror for Naruto was paramount, her heart pounding fearfully in her chest; he must have been immobilized same as them and totally vulnerable, and the more the seconds were ticking by, the more he was at risk

A familiar electric splitting sound, like thousands of bird screeching at once, reached her. _Sasuke!_ She thought frantically, recognizing the noise of his Chidori. She desperately willed him to succeed in breaking into the dome because tried as she might she could not move a mere millimeter of her body, and though it was barely minutes that they had been trapped, her total immobility and incapacity to do anything made as if it was hours.

Neiji, as paralyzed as Sakura, been busy working his mind to find a way out of their terrible predicament too. In all their worked out strategies, they had not accounted that all of them would be incapacitated like this at the same time, and this was bad. He discovered, to his major relief, that he could activate his Byakugan, and since the short span of time they had been trapped he had been minutely examining Sakura's chakra network; she stood right in front of him and it was easier to examine her to try to discover the cause of their immobility.

It did not take long for the Hyuuga to spot the problem: he discovered that all the major chakra nodes connecting to body motions had been rendered inactive by some fine chakra threads which came from the ground. A quick 360 degrees survey showed the chakra threads were coming from the center of the huge pentagram drawing on which they stood.

He felt a burst of hope. He should be able to counter this jutsu, and immediately set to work.

The silence of the enemy was suddenly broken by a voice.

"Yes, the Kyuubi is definitely here."

The cold, masculine voice sent chills down Sakura's back, and she saw that it was one of the four which stood in front of her who has spoken. He was tall, wiry, and seemed to be the one in command seeing the way the others responded to his words - a murmured cheer immediately going through the till now silent crowd.

Neiji was struck with shock at the words, spoken without a trace of doubt. How could they be so sure that this Naruto was indeed the real Jinchuriki? It was as if they could sense the Kyuubi as an entity on his own, which was unthinkable, since even the Byakugan could never sense the Kyuubi within Naruto. True, the Byakugan could sense the red chakra flow when Naruto activated the Fox mode, but right now Naruto had not activated it; his chakra flow was as normal as any one of them.

"Finally, the power is ours!" the man hissed malevolently, breaking into Neiji's frantic musings.

The Hyuuga saw three silhouettes detaching from the group and walking towards the carriage, the one who had spoke taller than the rest and leading by a few paces. Their stride was unhurried, purposeful, inexorable; it was even more terrifying, as it denoted the complete confidence in their power, the evil aura surrounding them reaching out to Konohans.

Not the carriage! Both Sakura and Neiji thought frantically. Sakura struggled even harder, while Neiji concentrated back more intently on his chakra flow. Another more second…he was not called the prodigy Hyuuga for nothing.

From outside the dome, Sasuke watched with increasing dread as a group of three people detached from the perimeter and moved towards the carriage. His thoughts went to the six murdered shinobis of Kumo, dead without any trace of struggle, and he knew that he should not let the people approach Naruto…not when Naruto was immobilized like this and incapable of defending himself.

The Uchiha closed his eyes and concentrated on a sensory search of the air. As he hoped, he managed to found some of the electric charge from the false storm which the enemy had created, scattered in the area. It was not much, but it was enough for what he needed to do.

"Move back!" he bellowed to Sai, Kiba and Akamaru, and the three immediately complied.

He did some swift hand seals and immediately, the scattered charges assembled and swirled above them in a whirlpool of electricity enriched clouds. He prepared a Chidori, and with some further hand seals, invoked the collected charge towards the Chidori; the crackling and sizzling sound amplified immediately, causing Sai and Kiba to cover their ears while Akamaru whimpered. An electrical blue shape appeared and zapped to the Chidori.

"So that's his Kirin technique!" thought Sai, watching from safe distance away, as awed as Kiba.

With a roar, Sasuke smashed the Kirin Chidori into the dome's surface. Had the technique been to its full power, the blast would have completely annihilated everybody within the dome, but as such, it was just strong enough to shatter the surface.

As the dome crumbled under the immense, raw electrical power of Kirin, the masked people looked up with disbelief shock.

"Impossible!" roared the leader who had already reached the carriage some precious minutes ago. From his cry of rage, it was obvious that the man had not expected his defense barrier to go out so soon.

There was a rush of confused panic as Sasuke, Sai, Kiba and Akamaru landed amidst the ground group, but the enemy were quick to recover and the four were immediately assailed by a swarm of attacking men.

All the attention was directed towards the new development and no one was paying attention to Neiji, who, with a burst of energy, used his Gentle Fist Style One Blow Body technique and freed himself from the immobilizing jutsu. Feeling his chakra rushing normally to his limbs and his movement ability back, the Hyuuga bounced towards the center of the pentagram and slammed his palm down on the center where the chakra threads emerged. As he had expected, the binding chakra flow was immediately deactivated by his gentle Fist technique; but he could not say for how long it would remain deactivated, not knowing how the chakra source was powered, so they would better move out of the pentagram as fast as possible.

By the time he was noticed by the enemy, it was too late: Sakura and the ANBU, freed, had already joined the fray.

Despite each of the Konohans immense aptitude, the fight was proving to be difficult since they were outmanned by at least twice, and the enemy was ridiculously strong, using unfamiliar, strong jutsus. As each Konohan fought, their minds were directed to the almost sinister silence of the carriage and each of them had the same worried thought in their mind: their Hokage should have joined the fight by now.

Sasuke landed back to back with Sakura. "Go to Naruto," he yelled as he stepped in to take her two opponents on top of his own two.

She immediately bounced away while he covered for her, taking on the four men at once while she rushed towards the carriage. She came face to face with the leader, while the other two masked individual held an unconscious, limp Naruto by each arm, both of them in a tell-tale crouched -about to take off - position while they were in the process of some hand-seals.

With a shout of fury, Sakura launched herself at the group. "Shannaro!" She thundered, punching the ground as she reached them, the sand exploding under her fist and sending all of them – the leader, the two individuals still holding Naruto, along with the carriage and horses - flying in the air.

She was prepared for that and with a burst of chakra at her feet, leaped high and grabbed Naruto from the shocked, slacked grasps of the two men, ramming her chakra enhanced feet powerfully in succession into each man's chest and using the momentum as pivot, jerked around and bounced away, her arms tightly around the unconscious Naruto.

"No!" roared the leader in rage, falling to his feet as the two others crashed a distance further away.

A shower of kunais immediately followed her unprotected back, but Neiji appeared behind her and used his Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin technique to deflect each kunai.

"Move out of the pentagram," Neiji shouted urgently, and Sakura instantly bounced away from the huge drawing. She guessed that the drawing must harbor the powers of the enemy - Neiji's Byakugan must see what her normal eyes could not.

The leader disappeared from his position in a flash to reappear in front of Sakura, eyes flashing with dark killing intent and an enraged howl on his lips; but even as he swung his arm to strike, a dagger glinting in his hand, Sasuke appeared and deflected the aim with his sword. The two immediately engaged in a ferocious combat.

More men – Sakura could not count how much as she was more intent to get out Naruto out of reach - rushed towards her, but were in turn intercepted by Kiba and Akamaru. Barely reaching a distance away from the pentagram, she was again barricaded by another set of figures, and Neiji jumped in again between her and the approaching men.

Seeing that it was futile to run further, she would only expose Naruto to more risks if she ran too far away from the team as they were so outnumbered, Sakura braked to a stop and deposited the still unconscious Hokage on the ground. She needed to urgently check him up, because something was not right. He should have broken out of the immobilizing Jutsu as the rest, and, more frightening, unlike her, where she had been as rigid as a rock, his form was slack, his body limp, and his eyes were closed. Seeing how the three foes had been with him, even for a very brief time, got Sakura intensely worried, and fear spiking through her, she quickly pushed a green chakra enhanced hand into Naruto's chest.

Her heart skipped to her mouth; she could not feel any heartbeat.

By now, she was surrounded by Sasuke, Kiba, Akamaru and Neiji, all building a defensive circle around her as she set to work. Mouth dry and heart hammering in her chest in fear, she hovered her hand over his torso, scanning for a further diagnostic. She still could not get anything. She scanned him again, in a much slower pace this time, trying to discern any minute injury; but again the scan did not reveal any injuries. Nor any life sign.

The fear lapping through her increased.

Fighting not to lose her calm, she turned around. "Neiji!" she screamed. Since the Hyuuga had known how to un-paralyze them, he should know why Naruto was not released from the Jutsu; or any other Jutsu that had rendered him into this- state- she refused to think it as anything else than that.

Sai rushed in to help as Neiji landed besides her. He ran his Byakugan over the inert body – and what he saw made his blood freeze in his veins. It was not a problem of block chakra points…there was no chakra flow in Naruto, at all.

"I don't see any chakra flow," he said, disbelief shaking his usually calm voice.

She turned a horror-struck face to Neiji. "What?" she shouted. No chakra flow could only mean one thing…

Neiji could not say anything further as one enemy managed to get through the defense of Kiba, Akamaru and Sai and was jumping straight at them, sword raised. Neiji jumped back and tackled the man, leaving Sakura without reply. A short distance away, Sasuke was still in a bloody fight with the powerful leader, and the ANBU as well locked in a harsh combat with another group.

Barely breathing, Sakura got back to work. "Naruto? Naruto, talk to me _" she heaved, as she pushed chakra against the inert body, checking out each vital organ. She could feel a blind panic rising from deep within her, trying to break through her shocked mind, but she struggled against it – it would not do any good, she needed her lucidity to be able to do anything.

Soon, the whole team held a protective formation around her, fighting the incoming offense. Their priority of the mission had changed – it was now a fierce battle to protect their Hokage from being reached by the surprisingly powerful and numerous enemy.

Her surrounding became a total blur, the shouts and clashes of fights receded from her mind as Sakura concentrated on only one thing – to do what she was supposed to excel at: healing. She had faith that she and her patient were provided with the best defense possible and she pushed all her mind onto Naruto.

Frantically, she infused her healing chakra at his heart, trying to jump start it. Even though she was struggling hard not to give it to the blind fear, her hands were shaking badly. The six dead Kumo shinobis were on her mind; they had died without the tiniest trace of injuries. She could not comprehend how the little time that the men had been with Naruto – barely a couple of minutes - had resulted into this. Such a powerful being as Naruto could not be taken down so easily; she refused to accept that.

She went from one organ to the other, infusing her healing chakra into them, not knowing exactly what to heal exactly but doing it anyway; she NEEDED to heal something, her numbness making her doing things automatically.

She lost track on how long she was at it.

She dimly realized that somebody was shaking her and she became aware that the fighting around her had ceased. She looked up to meet worried dark eyes.

Sasuke inhale a sharp breath when he saw her bleak eyes. "Sakura?"

"I'm not having anything," she whispered in a chocked frantic whisper. "Nothing." She got back to her work, starting from his head going down to his toes again. Skull, spine, arteries, veins, blood, all organs again. Nothing.

Neiji, Sai and Sasuke stood around her, battered and bleeding; a few men, all on the enemy sides, laid unconscious on the ground, tightly bound by Sai retaining ink snakes as added precautions. The leader, though, had run away with a few of his men. Kiba, Akamaru, the ANBU had given the chase, and Sai had sent a flurry of his ink animals at their heels.

"Do something," Sasuke urged Sakura desperately. "Surely you can do something?" She was the best medic-nin in the whole nations, after all. But her broken, despaired expression told him what his mind was refusing to accept.

His own expression was frozen, cold even; nothing showed of his inner agony. His chest was jagged with a deep gash which was bleeding profusely, but he did not even feel the physical pain, he was so numb. He felt a lump in his throat as he stared at the inert body of the blond, and he felt something close within him. Was that his fate? Was that his atonement for the wrongs that he has done – to lose his close ones over and over and over again? To be alone; always?

He looked at the two closest people he had ever had in his life from the day he lost his parents; the two ones who never gave up on him despite all, the two who cared enough to come to snatch him from the hell he had been falling into… and now, one was lifeless, and the other one soon to be broken, he knew, without repair.

"Maybe Tsunade shishou would have found the problem immediately," Sakura chocked, looking almost demented.

Sasuke opened his mouth, but Neiji beat him to it. "Sakura-san, if _you_ cannot find anything, then no one will," he murmured.

But she could not accept that statement. Drawing a pearl of blood from her thumb, she hit the ground and yelled "Kuchiose no jutsu!" and the medium sized slug which whom she usually worked, going by the name of Mai, appeared. Mai was as good as Katsuyu in medical ninjutsu and Sakura wanted to have a second opinion; she may be the best med-nin in the five nations, but she suddenly had big doubts about her ability, maybe she was not as good as she and the others had always believed.

It took only a few minutes and Mai bowed her head in sadness. "I'm sorry Sakura-Hime, I can't find the problem…I can't do anything." She then disappeared in a plop.

The words cut through Sakura. "Naruto, you baka. Wake up now!" she suddenly screamed, gripping the limp body and shaking it, her pain bursting forth.

The three males looked at the heaving body of the medic-nin over the lifeless form of Naruto, all stricken and dazed with shock. None thought of pulling her off; they were too stunned, their mind refusing to accept what their eyes were seeing.

A few minutes later, the wave of stormy emotions subdued and Sakura felt a sudden cold purpose getting into her. She suddenly felt very lucid, her mind sharp and clear; she had been prepared that such a horrifying eventuality might happen one day. She had a resolve and knew what she had to do.

She looked tenderly at the whiskered face, looking so peaceful, the eyelids closed over the oh so beautiful blue eyes, the blond hair a mess over his forehead. A soft smile tremulously reached her lips. Bending her head, she brought her lips close to the ears.

"I love you," she whispered. Some droplets of water fell on his cheeks, and she looked at them dispassionately. She had not even been aware that she was crying, the silent tears cascading down her cheeks. He had always accused her of having easy tears, she thought.

"And you can't accuse me of lying to myself this time," she chuckled brokenly.

Taking a deep breath, she straightened herself, suddenly feeling calm and almost peaceful. She lifted her chakra filled hands towards Naruto again. While the others stood some steps away, petrified and each within their own shock, she made some swift, unfamiliar hand seals. Preparing her hands for a final chakra burst, she pressed her palms over Naruto's belly, and a new, blue colored light appeared around her palms.

"Sakura?" Sasuke wanted to tell her that it was no use. It's been too long, there was no hope now.

Neiji had been watching the new hand seals with a frown. He did not recognize them, though they seemed familiar. He activated his Byakugan to have a better look, and he jumped in shock, suddenly remembering. He had witnessed this flow of chakra only once in his lifetime, years ago; the chakra migration had been imprinted in his mind from the only and unique time he had seen it, because of what they did.

There was no doubt about it; the flow he was seeing right now under his eyes was the same he had seen when Chiyo, from Suna, had done the life force transferring jutsu to Gaara, and the result from such Jutsu_

With lighting speed, Neiji rushed forward, stooped and grabbed Sakura, pulling her away from Naruto.

"Sakura-san!" His voice held his shock and hurt. "I cannot allow you to do this."

Sakura screamed and struggled. "Neiji! Let me go!" she cried out.

But the young Hyuuga maintained her firmly, while Sasuke and Sai, frozen still, looked upon, not comprehending what was happening.

"Sasuke, please help me to retain her!" Neiji shouted urgently as Sakura's struggles increased. The Hyuuga could have knocked out Sakura with a mere flick, but he wanted to have the medic-nin conscious.

Sasuke hesitated for second, torn between Sakura's protests and Neiji's appeal. But the frantic demeanor of the usually calm and stoic Neiji finally got to him, and he immediately complied.

"What is it?" he demanded, at the same time restraining a by now wildly struggling Sakura.

"Neiji! How can you do this?" Sakura choked.

"I'm sorry Sakura-san. Naruto would never have wanted this, and I would not forgive myself for standing back and watching you do what you were about to do."

Sasuke was having difficulty in holding Sakura back; her monstrous strength was not legendary for nothing.

"Sai!" Sasuke beseeched.

Sai hesitated for a second, and then swiftly drew some restraining snakes on his scroll. He knew that they would not hold her for long; she could break them like nothing. But at least it will give them time to understand what the Hyuuga was panicking about.

Sasuke watched as Neiji did some heals, and pointed a palm at Sakura's belly. He still felt torn though he had no choice but to trust the Hyuuga.

"What is it?" he repeated urgently, looking at Neiji, as the blue light slowly disappeared from Sakura's hands.

"She was doing a life transfer jutsu on Naruto," Neiji replied quietly.

Sasuke eyes widened and he snapped his head towards Sakura. "Sakura," he could only murmur.

"I have stopped the transfer movement and restored her normal chakra flow," Neiji said, lowering his hand.

"Sasuke! Let me go! I have to do it!" she shouted in anger. "I can't stand here not doing anything!" her voice dropped to an agonized whisper, her eyes wild. "Please," she appealed, closing her eyes, tears squeezing out past her closed lids.

She could not imagine life without Naruto. She just could not.

But Sasuke held her firmly, his arms wrapped tightly around her. "Don't, Sakura. He would never have wanted this. He would not be able to bear this burden on his conscience."

Sai crouched down besides her, holding her shoulder. "They are right," Sai said quietly. "Naruto would never have forgiven himself. You would be condemning him to a guilt filled life."

Sasuke stiffened as he suddenly felt some presences; Neiji as well had sensed it, and the men immediately stood alert.

They were relieved to see that it was Kakashi and his team.

"Damn! What happened here?" Ino gasped. She rushed to Sakura's side as Sasuke released her.

Kakashi looked at the scene, feeling a chill going down his back. Their decoy Hokage had suddenly popped and disappeared, and Kakashi knew that it would have happened in only one condition; Naruto had been incapacitated in a fight. They had immediately decided to rush to the group to be of any help. Now, what he saw was worst that what he had feared. He stared, horrified, at the inert body of their Hokage, and the despaired face of Sakura – her face telling him the story.

The others looked equally horrified and appalled. The two ANBUs from their team immediately set to scout the area when Sai had quickly explained the situation, and Sai decided to follow them.

"Sakura?" Ino whispered haltingly, not daring to ask the question burning her lips.

Sakura looked at her imploringly. Ino breath hitched at the utter desperation in the green eyes.

"Please check him out," Sakura whispered. "I-I can't find what happened. He–he's not showing any vital signs."

"I'll not find anything that you haven't," Ino replied gently yet firmly. "But I have an idea."

What she was about to do was very dangerous – her father had always warned her about the danger that lies in entering a …dead – she shivered at the horrifying thought - man's mind. One could get trapped in the dead mind forever; but Ino was past caring about that. The sight of their blond friend lying there helplessly was unbearable. She placed her palm over Naruto's head and activated her mind body switch technique. The others watched her, understanding that she was looking into his mind.

Delicately, Ino went through the last events which Naruto had been through. She wanted to see what exactly have the enemy done to him to have caused this result. Eyes closed, her face was set in a frown as she roamed through his mind.

Shikamaru was silent. He watched, speechless, at the inert body of his friend. They had managed to lure the enemy all right, as he wanted; but at what price. He felt stricken and a sense of failure. His plan had failed. He was still moping in his feeling of failure when two silhouettes appeared on the horizons, and an instance later, Temari and Kankuro reached the group.

"Gaaraa had been having a bad feeling and asked us to come to meet you guys," Temari whispered to no one in particular as she watched in horror at the lifeless body of Naruto.

A short while later, which seemed like ages to the tensed, waiting group, Ino carefully retracted.

"I've got something," she urgently told the worried group.

Snapping from her stupor, Sakura felt a mad hope getting into her.

"Sakura, he's not dead. His neurons are still active, though so faintly that you would barely know it. And they've injected something at his nape. I felt a slight prick, so it must be very small. And from the conversation before the guy pricked him, I don't think they intended to kill Naruto- yet."

_"__This should knock them both of them out nice enough,"_ Ino had heard the man sneered while pricking Naruto.

"It's just a stun," she told the group hanging to her words. "A powerful stun to incapacitate both Naruto and the Kyuubi."

Sakura was already rolling Naruto on his belly. She had suddenly remembered Sasuke being in a similar death-like state when pierced at the neck by Haku's fine senbon during their first mission to the Water country those long years ago.

"At his nape?" she repeated, doing a quick visual survey, pulling his hair back to have a better look, but could not see any prick sign. She hovered her chakra filled palms over the nape area and still she could not detect anything; even Neiji's Byakugan failed to locate any foreign matter. Ino tried to pinpoint the location, but it was not easy to point with exactitude; the prick she had felt had been so slight.

"Why not simply extract whatever is there like you did for Kankuro when he was poisoned?" suggested Temari. She has erupted a huge fan from her scrolls which was now acting like an umbrella, keeping the hot blazing sun off the working unit.

Sakura shook her head, while at the same time focusing on Naruto's nape. "I cannot extract not knowing _what_ to extract," she whispered. "For Kankuro, I knew exactly which poison to extract. I prepared the chakra bubble accordingly, so that the bubble would remove the specific poison. But here I do not know what I'm dealing with. It's definitely not a poison, because I have not located any signs of poison in his blood stream."

It was among the first check she had done, trying to detect any poison in his organism. "I can't go blindly here," she whispered. Talking was helping to return her sanity back.

"And it being at such a delicate location, so close to his spine, make things tricky," Ino said quietly. "A single wrong move, Naruto can get paralyzed, or worst, go in a long term coma."

Sakura took a deep, steadying breath, gathering her thoughts back together again, and calming her jittery nerves. Even if there was something as tiny as an atom in there, she _would _find it. She had not worked so hard to get where she was for nothing. She could not afford not to perform for her most precious person.

She activated her diamond shaped chakra reserve on her forehead. Making a hand seal, her whole body went into a green glow; then she slowly channeled chakra into her index, which she positioned onto Naruto's nape. With minute, millimetered movement, she moved the index over the skin, scanning the region again.

Ino inhaled sharply. She watched with deep fascination and reverence as her friend performed the technique. She was witnessing one of the most advanced and complicated jutsu in the medic field, which equaled to an atomic scan. As a medic-nin, she had only read about the technicality of it; even Tsunade herself had not been able to master this Jutsu. The precision and chakra control needed for this was phenomenal and nothing could be missed by this. The chakra needed for this was extreme as well, thus why this jutsu could not be used be used over extensive area. One single square centimeter of scanning could draw all the chakra from a person and Ino frowned, worried. Even if they knew something has been placed at the nape, the region was still too large for this particular ninjutsu. Sakura would not last long if they did not find that thing fast.

After some few tense minutes which seemed like a lifetime, Sakura muttered, "Got it." She detected a tiny alien particle which was buzzing off some amount of energy. She immediately frowned. "It's lodged into his skull bone at the head of his spine."

After a moment of silence, where everybody held their breath, she whispered, "I'll have to drill."

Not removing her hands, she turned to look at Shikamaru.

"I'll need you to immobilize him totally. My manipulations should not budge his head for the tiniest fraction."

Shikamaru nodded silently before activating his Kage Mane Jutsu. Temari's huge fan provided more than enough shade for the jutsu.

Sakura drew another burst of chakra from her dwindling reserve and sent it to her forefinger, sharpening it to the point of being as tiny and cutting as the finest laser beam. She set to work, carefully drilling into the flesh to reach Naruto's scull base; there, she worked a tiny hole around the area of the thing to dislodge it. It was a slow, delicate process and she applied all her know-how in doing it.

Ino, in the meantime, had already prepared a tiny chakra bubble, and at Sakura's sign, she carefully passed it on to Sakura index. It took another slow while to get the chakra bubble to the now freed detected particle, envelope the bubble around it and took as long to extract it out; but to everyone's immense relief, it was done finally.

At first, the tiny chakra bubble seemed empty, but a close inspection from Neiji's Byakugan detected a green haze of the size of a sand particle. However tiny that thing was, it had enough chakra emission to have done its work.

Sakura sat back, drained and stumped; the emotional trauma was beginning to take effect. Ino immediately took over and gently pushed her chakra enhanced hands over the operated region, while Neiji scanned through the chakra network with his Byakugan.

"His flow has restarted!" the Hyuuga breathed.

"You can release him now," Ino whispered to Shikamaru. He was showing clear signs of fatigue as well, having to hold his jutsu for so long.

Nine pairs of hopeful, expectant eyes watched the still inert body, breath held.

Finally, a blond eyebrow twitched. Then a lid opened, followed by the second one, revealing blue eyes, and Naruto slowly looked around the anxious, terrified face of his friends.

"What happened?" he mumbled. "Ino? Sakura-Chan?"

Wordlessly, with a thud, Sakura dropped to the ground, unconscious; shock, relief and chakra depletion finally getting the better of her.

XOXOX

"Naruto," Gaara murmured.

He has been informed about the near disaster that had taken place via a hawk Kankuro had expedited, and had been awaiting the group at the entrance of Suna village. A medical team was ready and waiting by his side. Baki, his chief commander, led a group of Suna ANBUs who immediately took charge of the eight still unconscious and bound enemies.

"Sakura-Chan," Naruto only said at Gaara's greeting.

Gaara nodded. "She will be well taken care of, have no worry."

The waiting medical team immediately rushed forward and delicately removed the unconscious Sakura from Naruto's arms and promptly disappeared, along with Ino by their side.

"Anyone else needs medical care?" asked Gaara, but they all shook their head. Their wounds had been tended by Ino. "Then let's go to my office," Gaara said, "we will talk there."

"No," Naruto said firmly, "I need to go back. Kiba, three of my ANBUs and Sai are on the trail of the group. I just wanted to make sure that Sakura-Chan is in good hands."

If Kiba has done his part correctly, the enemy would not be able to evade them for too long. Naruto looked at Sasuke, who nodded. The Uchiha's gash had been healed by Ino, and he was ready to set off again.

Naruto was deeply upset. He felt a great sense of failure towards his men – it had been his idea that had led them into this and he had not even been apt to raise his tiny finger to protect his people. Now it was time he took over and finished the work which they had so valiantly started.

Gaara looked at the young Hokage silently for a second. "Okay, you are right; you can fill in the details as we moved."

Naruto opened his mouth in surprise, but the young Kazekage was already turning towards Kankuro and Temari.

"Kankuro, Temari, I'll leave the task of seeing to our incoming guests in your hands. The Raikage and the Tsuchikage is expected by tomorrow morning, see that they have the welcome that they deserve."

Both looked at their brother with raised eyebrows, but they did not protest. They both nodded.

"Make sure you return on time for the finals at least, little brother," Kankuro said. The final sets of exams were scheduled to start the day after, early morning. "It would not look good if the Kazekage himself was not present."

"We'll be here," Gaara replied calmly.

Naruto stared at his Suna friend. "Are you sure it's a good idea for the Kazekage to leave the village at such a time?"

"Why should the Hokage be the only one to have all the fun?" replied Gaara.

XOXOX

Gaara and Baki, the two to accompany the Konohans comprising of the Hokage, Sasuke, Neiji, Kakashi and Shikamaru, were quickly filled in about the enemy.

"A pentagram?" repeated Baki sharply when told about the huge drawing on the ground which had immobilized the convoy.

"You know about such jutsu?" Kakashi immediately asked.

Baki was thoughtful for one minute, his brows furrowed incredulously, before replying. "We have in our archives some info about a very old clan which used to exist before the coming about of the Ninja world as we know it now. This clan jutsus was ancient techniques based ancient symbols and runes which were closely linked with sorcellery. This clan was comprised of monks and their specialty was taming demons with their most powerful technique: the pentagram binding technique."

A shocked silence received the information.

'Demons?" echoed Naruto.

"You mean to say that the group that attacked could be from that clan?" Gaara asked.

"I would have thought that would be unlikely, because we are talking about a clan which existed before our ninja times, hundred of years ago, when the world was ruled by powerful sages and monks. As far as we know, that clan is supposed to be extinct; there is no record of them or their powers having been passed on."

"They immediately knew that Kyuubi was present," remembered Neiji.

Baki nodded. "They had special demon sensing abilities. It must definitely be them because I have never come across any other sensing ability for a tailed beast within a Jinchuriki."

"Their planning was perfect and well timed," Shikamaru said tightly. He still felt responsible for the failure of the mission and had chills when thinking about what the outcome could have been. "They certainly beat us as strategist."

"Shikamaru," Naruto calmly but firmly cut him. "Your plan did NOT fail. We've brought the enemy out of their anonymity and now know of their powers. We've taken most of them down; now it's just a question of finishing the work."

Baki nodded his agreement. "The pentagram jutsu was renowned for being very powerful," he said. "It was a genius move on Neiji's part to stop the power by using his gentle fist. And to break down that chakra barrier was another feat. Don't forget that you have dealt with techniques used to hold down demons such as powerful tailed beasts!"

Naruto looked proudly at his team. "That's why I put my trust explicitly in you guys," he whispered.

"Konoha has one of the best team known to rule it," agreed Gaara.

Naruto went serious when he thought about what might have happened while he had been "dead". When the others had briefed him, Neiji had quite reluctantly told him about Sakura's attempt. The blue eyes were dulled with a glint of pain; he would have to deal with that issue later. For now, he has a mission to finish.

XOXOX

Several hours later, following the trail of ink animals which Sai had left, the group met Sai, Kiba and the three ANBUs. They had grouped as per the instructions, waiting a safe distance away from the enemy's suspected hideout.

"You did it," Naruto told Kiba.

Kiba grinned smugly. "No-one can escape our nose once our dynamic marking has landed on them."

"They didn't suspect that they were being followed?" Sasuke asked.

"They were already quite wounded and were more intent to escape."

"Then let's go," Naruto said. "There's no time to lose."

XOXOX

The enemy did not have the slightest chance of escape. They might have been from an old clan, with powerful jutsus at their beckon, but their power was finally puny compared to the group of powerful, closely bonded shinobis who eventually faced them. The leader along with every single of his follower were defeated and taken as prisoners of the alliance, since they had to face trial in the Kumo country as well.


	8. Chapter 8

**At last, the final chapter. A final big thank to all those who have taken the time to read, alerted, faved or reviewed this story.**

**Warning: this story has been rated M for a valid reason, so you are duely warned.**

XOXOX**  
**

When Sakura eventually awoke the late sun, already low in the sky, was streaming through the large windows of the room she was in. She blinked as she took in her surroundings and tried to recall how she has landed in the unfamiliar, spacious and elegantly furnished room. Then it all rushed back to her and her heart raced in fear and pain.

"Naruto!"

She jerked bolt upright, but immediately felt giddy and weak, lights popping in front of her eyes and she fell back down. She then noticed the IV tube coming from her left arm, but she was past caring about her own state of health, her mind only frantic with the need to see Naruto; she needed to see if her treatment had been 100% successful and that he was safe and alright_

"Sakura!" Ino appeared at the door and seeing that Sakura was struggling to get up again, rushed to the bed. "Easy now, Forehead," said the Yamanaka girl, placing a hand on Sakura's shoulder and pushing her back against the pillows. "You've been out for four days; take things slowly."

_Four days?_ Thought Sakura, shocked. "Naruto? How is he? Where is he?" she rasped, frenetic with worry, her voice rusty from lack of use of the past days.

"Shh…He's _fine_," Ino soothed her. "He is perfectly alright and is in a meeting right now."

Despite the words, Sakura's anguish was not appeased. The despair she had felt while holding Naruto's lifeless body in her arms, believing she had lost him for ever, still lingered within her. She made to sit up again despite Ino's adamant protests; she desperately needed to see him with her own eyes.

Ino gave an exasperated sigh. "Forehead, don't make me sedate you!" she threatened. At Sakura's glare of disbelief, she insisted, "I'll do it; I've been given strict order to do anything to ensure your fast recovery and I intend to do just that!"

Sakura paused reluctantly under the threat.

"He's perfectly fine, trust my word," Ino said gently. "He's been by your bedside whenever he was free." _Definitely now is not the time to tell her that they had gone back to the enemy,_ thought Ino, as Sakura's shoulders visibly eased with relief. "You perfectly know the drill, Billboard brow; you're not supposed to get off bed so immediately after you're awake from a coma, however short it was. Let's start by checking your vitals."

Disgruntled, Sakura laid back to the pillows. "I feel fine," she grumbled.

Ino set to check the usual stats: pupil reaction, blood pressure, chakra levels. "I know how you're impatient to meet your sweetheart," the blond teased as she worked, earning a withering glare and bringing some color in the cheeks of her bedded friend, "but he's in a meeting with the other Kages right now. It would be a quite diplomatic blunder to rush into the room like a crazed lovesick girl, right?"

Sakura felt her eyebrows twitch at the taunts of her friend. "Ino," she growled, "don't think that I can't punch you senseless."

Ino chuckled; then her face went serious. "That was a close call, wasn't it?"

Sakura shivered. "Thanks Kami for your quick thinking and immense talent, Ino," she said quietly. Without Ino's intervention… She could not think about the alternate ending of all this. Medically, no human body would not have lasted indefinitely through such forced dead state and they had zero clues how long this 'hibernation' would have lasted. She wondered, with horror, whether the Kumo shinobis had been rendered likewise and had been buried thus.

"The Kumo shinobis -" she began but Ino interrupted her.

"They were definitely dead; the Raikage ordered a further check to be carried out, but nothing was discovered in the bodies," she told Sakura quietly.

Both girls were silent for a while, contemplating the horrible thought.

"You were so right, Ino," Sakura whispered. At the blend's frown of query, she elaborated, "When you said that we don't know when we can get killed in duty…our lives could end tomorrow and we would die passing by the most important things in life."

It was barely over two months when she and Ino had that chat at the tempura's house, yet it seemed ages away. She had come close to losing Naruto without clarifying how she felt and her heart clenched at that thought. She crossed Ino's speculative stare and quickly masked her expression. She was not ready yet to share what she and Naruto had; or appear to have.

"Where are we?" She asked, changing the subject, looking around.

Ino decided not to press her friend. "At the guesthouse allocated for the Konoha Kage delegation," she replied. "You were not in any major health threat, just severe chakra depletion, so we thought it'd be better that you stayed here instead of the hospital."

"Wow, Suna does treat their guests grandly," Sakura remarked, looking appreciatively around the spacious room.

Ino smirked. "You've been given the room originally meant for the Hokage." Upon Sakura's immediate frown, she specified, "At the firm insistence of Naruto. My room is right across yours." She had finished with her checks. "Everything seems fine," she announced.

"It's what I said," Sakura retorted, "I _feel_ fine."

"But you'll remain in bed," Ino said firmly. "You are still quite weak." Sakura opened her mouth to protest, but Ino cut her.

"Bed."

"Can I at least have some food? I'm ravenous. And I need a shower." As Ino started to protest, Sakura growled. "I feel gritty, Pig. I need a SHOWER."

XOXOX

A shower, some food and an hour later, Sakura was feeling completely better –though Ino continued to disagree with her. The IV tube was removed and she wore a loose brown tunic for comfort, courtesy of Temari, as her own clothes had not been appropriate for "convalescing" in this hot climate. After a spat with Ino about what Sakura accused as _obstinate_ insistence of being treated like the sick person which she was not anymore, a compromise was reached between the two friends and she now reclined in the comfortable couch found in the bedroom instead of being in bed. It was obvious that Ino was enjoying and abusing this temporary upper hand of power, much to Sakura's indignation, and she felt a little more sympathetic with Naruto when she thought about all the times that she had restrained him in the hospital despite his protests; though of course she intent to never admit that to him.

Upon learning that she had come out of her short coma, the others, except for Shikamaru who had accompanied Naruto in the Kage's meeting and which was still not over, had crowded in the room for a visit and were now all lounged about on all available sitting surface – Akamaru wrapped around his master's legs- chatting and filling her in the past days' events.

Sakura was still digesting the fact that Naruto and the others had gone back to the enemy's lair. She was upset but was deeply relieved that they were all safe, and the threat of the enemy was definitely behind them.

"When you guys walked on that pentagram, the presence of Kyuubi in Naruto activated it's Jutsu, and the clan members was teleported to it," Kakashi, who stood leaning by the window, explained when Sakura queried about why they had not been able to sense the presence of the enemy. "Basically, the people were nowhere near you guys for you to have sensed them."

"And a prolonged presence of that chakra inject would have eventually killed Naruto," Neiji said. "From the interrogation, we gathered that they had not intended to remove it from him. It would have served it's purpose for the extraction of the Kyuubi; it was all they were interested in."

Sakura shuddered.

"You should be warned, Naruto is very upset with you," Sai told her quietly.

"He knows about?_"

"Yes. He had to be told," the young man replied, looking a tad bit guilty. "As the Hokage, we owed him a complete and true report."

"And he should definitely be informed when _such_ a Jutsu is being used by his people," Sasuke added darkly.

Sakura inwardly winced at the barely hidden reprimand. She felt nervous tickle running down her back, but she firmly pushed it away. "We've got to do what we've got to do," she insisted mutinously and Kakashi sighed ruefully behind his mask.

Sasuke grunted, "Yeah, sure. You tell him that."

"So, when do we leave?" she asked, hurriedly changing the subject.

Temari raised an eyebrow. "You're in such a hurry to go?"

Sakura shook her head. "I love Suna, you know that." She frowned. "I just hope it's not me who has been holding up the departure." The finals of the Chunin exams being over two days ago, logically they should have left for home by now.

"Most of the other delegations are still here and leave tomorrow," Temari said. "Gaara has planned a closing ceremony festivity for this evening, starting with a banquet and finishing with fireworks later."

"And we are glad that you would be able to attend, Sakura-San," came the calm voice of Gaara and Sakura jerked her head towards the door. "It's good to see that you have recovered."

The young Kazekage stood at the door, Naruto by his side, Kankuro and Shikamaru at the back.

"Kazekage-sama," Sakura greeted, but her eyes were all for the blond by his side.

"We were informed that you've woken up," Naruto said. The blue eyes sparkled bright in relief as he inspected her, taking in the face that has gained some color, the freshly washed pink hair shining with life, falling loose to her shoulders and the lively green eyes holding a myriad of emotions as they looked at each other from across the room.

"How are you feeling?" he queried, quickly moving in the room but reluctantly checked himself and stopped only a few steps within. He needed to have a serious discussion with her first and did not want to be distracted by his emotions right now, and those beautiful, wide eyes looking at him would surely undermine his resolve. The past days had given him time to calm some of his anger towards her for what she had been about to do, but he still had cold chills when thinking about the what could have been. He needed to settle things with her, and despite her having just got out from coma, he needed to do it _now_ before anything else.

Sakura was too busy drinking the sight of him to immediately notice his pause. She did a hungry survey of him, her eyes running anxiously over his frame, clad in a tunic similar to hers; frame which she had held in such utter despair some mere days ago, thinking that she had lost him for ever. Her heart clenched at the memory.

She suddenly felt the immense urge to lunge herself into his arms and burst into tears; it was with big effort that she curbed the urge. Feeling jittery, she was afraid to get up from the couch, least that her suddenly jellied legs would not support her. Realizing that he was looking at her expectantly, his question still hanging, she hitched a breath in before speaking, her voice coming out quite shaky.

"I'm fine. How are _you_ doing?"

"Perfect, as you can see," he replied, "thanks largely to you." She then noted that his face has gone serious, _very_ serious, his eyes dark navy and fiery and she quivered. It was easy to see that he was extremely upset with her; Sai had been right.

"We should leave now," Ino chimed in loudly, eyeing the others pointedly.

"No."

All eyes turned questioningly towards Naruto.

"Stay, all of you. You should be witness to what I have to tell Sakura."

Sakura flinched; the ominous tone did not bode anything good and she quickly stole a glance at Sasuke. The Uchiha shrugged, his expression holding an "I told you so."

"Sakura," Naruto started grimly and the pink haired cowered even farther at the lack of Chan in her name, meaning he meant real serious business, "you had intended to use a forbidden Jutsu during the battle and this is unacceptable." He did not even bother to question how or when she had come to learn the Jutsu; someone of _her_ caliber would not have any hurdles for that. "There is absolutely no excuse for you trying to give up your life like that to save mine."

Putting a brave front, she looked at him steadily. "Nothing would have happened to me since technically you were not d-dead," she replied.

"The fact still remained that you had been intending to use it," he said tersely. "It's classified as a forbidden jutsu for a good reason and I formally forbade you to use that jutsu. Ever again, under any circumstances."

Sakura remained silent.

"I would never forgive myself if anything happens to any of you because of ME," Naruto continued, his voice low. "How do you think I would have felt if you…" he could not finish his sentence.

"Then you can understand how _I_ felt when you laid there, lifeless," Sakura replied quietly.

"Sakura," he snapped, his eyes hard, "it's not the same thing. As a Hokage, heck, as a Shinobi, we are prepared that we will fall any time. But what _you_ were about to do was not right."

She opened her mouth but his narrowed eyes stopped her.

"No arguments, Sakura. You aren't going to use that Jutsu again. You have to give me your word." At her mutinous silence, he growled, "Don't make me question the validity of having you as my personal security escort."

Sakura felt the blood leaving her face as she stared at him, stupefied. "N-Naruto?"

Naruto lowered his gaze, evading the wounded look of those green eyes. "If removing you from the position of my personal bodyguard is the only way to guarantee that you will never use that Jutsu again, I'll do it," he said.

The shock running around the silent room was almost palpable. Sakura felt as if the world was crashing down on her. She had always valued her duty as Naruto's medical security guard above all. Knowing that she shared the responsibility of keeping Naruto safe has always meant much to her; it was her own small way of actually doing something _significant_ for him and to keep her vow of protecting him. It was what kept her going when she had to smother her feelings for him, cherishing the fact that at least she could care for him in a tangible way, in a field where she was good.

"Naruto…" Her voice shook. She did not care that the others were witnessing her expression of blatant desperation.

"Maybe it was a bad decision on my part to take anyone close to me as bodyguard," he said quietly, "if it comes to letting emotions be involved in the line of duty."

Sakura felt a sudden anger blazing through her. She sprang up from the couch and stomped to stand within a few paces in front of him. "Fine, I give you my word not to use that Jutsu again," she flared, "but what you've said is bullshit! Don't you dare belittle those of us who wants to protect our close ones. We _choose_ to do it; we don't do it out of obligation and our emotions are our force when we protect someone we care about."

"She is right, you know," Temari's wry voice rang out. Kankuro nodded and Gaara remained silent.

Sasuke slid narrowed eyes to Naruto. "I hope you're not finding my body-guarding duties lacking since I believe _we_ had some emotions involved too?"

Ino's eyebrows twitched.

"I meant as _brothers_," the Uchiha grunted as the others had started to snicker.

Naruto felt cornered and was peeved that the others were making such a light matter of the subject. He looked stubbornly at Sakura. "I'm the Hokage and a Jinchuriki, Sakura, I'll _always_ be at risk of danger, always the target of some enemy or another_"

"_and I'll be by your side when you face those dangers," she interrupted fiercely, her green eyes an open door to her soul as she looked at him. "In danger or safety, for the better or the worse, in health and sickness, I'll always be by your side."

The air seemed to suddenly still. Naruto's eyes widened, incredulous. Sakura suddenly realized how her words were close to a _particular_ vow. She reddened.

All the eyes had zoomed on the pink haired, all varying in degrees of incredulity and amusement.

"I really think it's time we leave now," Gaaraa said quietly, breaking the silence as Naruto seemed incapable of words, his jaw hanging open. Sasuke grunted in agreement.

Groans of protests welcome his words. "It's getting to the interesting part!" Kiba whined and Akamaru woofed in agreement.

"Yeah, we need to have a closure too!" Kankuro added.

Chouji nodded, to immediately receiving a glare from Ino and found himself being dragged out by the arm.

Gaara swept his calm but warning stare across the protesting two. "We leave now," he said softly but with an underlying steel. Neiji was already leaving the room, a faint smile lifting his lips.

"We'll be at the banquet dinner if you guys are up to it," Temari threw towards the silent pair as the herd reluctantly left the room.

XOXOX

Kakashi smiled beneath his mask as the as they left the guesthouse. "So, who won?" he asked.

"Gaara and Sasuke – tied up position," said Ino, checking on her list.

"Oh man," Kiba groaned, thinking about the stake. The winners were to get one week free lunch from each losing participant.

Sasuke smirked. He had bagged at least half a year worth of free lunches.

XOXOX

Left alone, Naruto and Sakura stood facing each other wordlessly. At least, Naruto stared at her while she stared at her feet, still red. No interruption was forthcoming this time, no one would barge in; there was only them and no evading the glaring, obvious fact concerning their feelings.

Sakura was such a nervous havoc that she felt like bolting out of the door with the others; her hands were clammy, her stomach felt as if it had been flipped inside out, her legs felt about to give up on her anytime soon. But she locked her knees firmly; the time to run away from this was gone.

"Always by my side?" Naruto asked softly, breaking the silence. She raised her head to look at him. He looked as if he has received a punch, his face pale, the eyes locked on hers insecure and hopeful at the same time.

He was not talking about her duty as his medic security consort and she knew that.

"Yes," she replied shakily, feeling incredibly shy and weak and meek. "Always."

She was not talking about platonic friendship and he knew that.

Her heart did a somersault as the blue eyes shifted in an expression of pure joy. "As long as you don't get tired of me always being a burden to you," she breathed, making a feeble attempt at laughing but it came out as a choked gasp.

"Never," he whispered hoarsely, taking a step towards her.

"Always leaning on you…"

"_Don't ever stop…It's _my_ honor you believe in me that much to do so."

"Always _weak__"

"__My_ strength…"

"I_"

"It was always you…Sakura-Chan. As long as I know, as far as I know... there has never been anyone else but you in my heart." He took another step towards her. "I love you."

With a chocked cry, Sakura finally gave in to the yearning that had gripped her since he came in the room and hurled herself at him, the whole length of her body pressed hard against his, her face buried in his chest. His arms immediately wrapped around her and he was holding her so tightly that she could barely breathe, but she did not care; she wanted to be as close as humanely possible to him, basking in the wonderful warmth radiating from him despite the layers of clothing.

"And I love you," she said into him, her voice muffled.

Naruto shook at the feelings crashing over him, all his longing and need that he had kept in check for the long years overflowing him.

"Sakura-Chan…" he breathed, his face against her sweet smelling silky hair.

They stayed like that, locked in each other's embrace and reveling in their finally being together. At length, he loosened his hold and she pulled her head back to look at him. Any further words would have been quite superfluous, the cerulean blue eyes eloquent enough about his feelings as they roamed hungrily over her face, the green orbs looking back at him equally as open about her emotions.

Then they were kissing, lips fused hungrily onto each other, feverish and desperate. Needing no coaxing, she readily opened her mouth to give him access and got submerged by the delicious feelings that racked through her body as their tongues heatedly met and set out for a thorough exploration of each other.

Eventually they break off, both of them breathing hard, still holding each other tightly. Naruto had to strongly remind himself that she has just got out from her coma and was still recuperating; he struggled to control his whacked senses. Giving in to one of his oldest fantasies, he dropped a hot kiss on her forehead.

"I _adore_ this forehead of yours," he said huskily, earning a flustered eyeroll from her. She was reminded of the famous bench incident when he had henged into Sasuke.

"Baka," she mumbled shakily, cheeks pink.

"_Your_ baka."

Her heart skipped a beat at the bright, tender grin. "_My_ baka," she agreed and he promptly captured her lips with his in another heated exploration - he just could not get enough of her sweet taste, he was already addicted to it.

Sakura felt giddy, her entire body buzzing and feeling blazingly alive as his lips and tongue fervently probed and explored her mouth and she responded with an ardor matching his. When they pulled apart, she was trembling, her longing for him having reached pitch high. She wanted _all_ of him, _now_ - they had wasted enough years as it is - but she felt hesitant and utterly gauche, not knowing how to formulate her yearning across; so, she just clung to his shoulders and standing on tip toes, rained kisses along his jaw and chin. Her warm, shaky breath teased him as she trailed her lips over his cheeks, tracing his whisker marks.

"Sakura-Chan…" Naruto sighed in a shuddering breath.

She lowered her arms and pressed her hands into his chest, feeling his heart drumming wildly beneath her palm. Unable to resist longer and giving in to her urge, she leaned back a bit, dragged her hands down his torso and grabbed a fistful of his tunic to lift it off him.

Naruto's breath hitched at the direction things were going. "Sakura…" he rasped as he looked at her through half lidded eyes, "your health _"

"I'm _fine_," she growled, heat gushing to her cheeks as she tossed the garment aside.

She lowered her eyes, drinking in the sight of the well toned and gorgeous body which she had mooned over since so long now. She raised her hands to run them ecstatically over his shoulders and chest, glorying in the powerful muscles, the tanned skin feeling wonderfully warm and supple under her exploring palms.

She could hear his breathing quicken; it made her feel more confident and she brought her face forward to plant her lips on the firm pectoral above his heart. _All mine,_ she thought fiercely, running her tongue across his skin and relishing the delicious taste, eliciting a deep groan from him. Her hands fluttered down his abdomen and over his taut belly, reaching until his waistband before stopping abruptly, not daring to move further.

Naruto's breathing became harsh and he felt an obvious, insistent stirring in a specific part of his body. Needing no more prompting, he felt all restraint disappearing from his mind and drew her back in for another long heated kiss, his tongue caressing hers with a renewed boldness and earning some enticing moans from her. Pulling his lips from hers, it was his turn to eagerly drag her loose tunic over her head, her arms obligingly raised to facilitate the process, leaving her clad in only her white lacy underwear sets.

Darkened blue eyes swept hungrily over her, feasting in the sight which he had fantasized about since as far as he could remember. What he saw was much, much better that what his imagination had conjured. She was perfect; pearly silken skin, modest but so perk and perfect breasts hugged snuggly by the lacy white bra, flat, firm belly centered with the tantalizing bellybutton, lower down the white panty demurely and temptingly hiding her most intimate part, softly curved hips giving way to her long, slender yet powerful legs… He felt blood rushing wildly up his face.

His smoldering inspection caused an attack of shyness to overtake Sakura, turning her into an even redder shade. Diving into him, she buried her face into his neck, her heart drumming against her chest and her whole body quivering.

Naruto could not help smiling tenderly. "Kami, you're so beautiful, Sakura-Chan…" he murmured huskily into her ear, his breath fanning the flames already racing through her.

His hands roamed over the soft curve of her back and hips, relishing the silky feel of her skin as he shaped the soft contours of her body. The feel of their almost naked bodies pressing against each other and the searing caresses of his calloused hands inflamed Sakura's already churning senses and she moaned, shyness quickly forgotten and face raised to him.

His mouth left a scorching trail over her eyes and ears and jaw, then return to her mouth for another feverish kiss, all the while his hands heatedly moving up and down her spine to finally come to her fleshy, firm and so kneadable backside covered by the thin fabric of her underwear. The touch and feel of her was driving Naruto crazy with desire and he felt his body jerk even harder within the confines of his pants; his hands tightened convulsively on her.

"Sakura," he muttered against her lips, then in a fluid movement swung her up in his arms and closed the short distance to the bed. He laid her down and joined her, pinning her on the soft mattress.

Sakura's heartbeat sped crazily as she felt his powerful, warm length on her, his weight crushing her deliciously, her nostrils assailed by his unique earthen, male scent. Supporting himself on his forearms planted on each side of her, he did not move any further, his blue eyes raking into hers.

He had so often dreamed of a moment like this that now it seemed like another of his fantasy. But this was real. She was real and this was a turning point.

He suddenly felt unsure. Everything was spiraling so fast and he wanted to be sure whether this was really what she wanted. Furthermore, this was the first time for both of them and he felt afraid to disappoint her, his knowledge about sex being so limited.

"Sakura, are you sure_" he started,

"_love me, Naruto," she cut in, eyes blazing, breath choppy. She was done waiting. To seal her decision, she arched her back up, pushing her body even closer to his. "_Love me._"

His eyes burned as her softness molded into him, the trusting, needy green eyes looking up at him catching his breath off. He dipped his head and took her in a demanding kiss.

What occurred next was only a blur of mind-numbing pleasure of discovering and loving each other.

Sakura was so submerged by a heated haze as his hot mouth slid to the side of her neck, placing wet, fiery open-mouthed kisses onto her sensitive skin, nipping on the pulse beating madly under the surface to immediately soothe the sting with his tongue, that she did not even know when he had removed her bra off. She only became aware of the fact when she felt his warm palms kneading her bare softness and she whimpered in surprise and pleasure. His mouth soon followed his hands, a satisfied growl escaping him as he latched hungrily on a hardened nipple.

Head thrown back and spine arched forward, Sakura raked her fingers through the blond hair and clutched his head closer, a loud moan of ecstasy escaping her as waves of pure pleasure rippled through her from his hungry ministrations. He responded by latching harder onto her sensitized breast, before moving on to it's counterpart to lavish it with the same feasting.

The temperature of the room seemed to have increased dramatically as they were surrounded by a heat wave of their own making, hot fire searing their bodies together, his hot mouth kissing and biting his way over her ribs and flat belly. She was only dimly aware as Naruto quickly invested them off their remaining clothes, his eyes twins of smoldering blue flames as he looked down at her.

"Sakura…" he said thickly, everything in him reacting wildly to the sight of his lifelong love finally completely naked before him.

Sakura's skin infused with red under the raw male appreciation in blue eyes, and she herself could not prevent her own silent gasp as her wide eyes took in the sight of him, naked. He was gorgeous – all male and powerful.

She lost the thread of her thoughts as he joined her and claimed her mouth in another rough kiss, at the same time his hands leaving a trail of fire down her abdomen to reach her soft and hot center. She buckled her hips without even being aware of it, clutching his shoulders desperately. Her wild moans were muffled by his mouth as he began to caress his way her soft pink curls, his warm, questing fingers finding the aroused mound of nerves and driving her into a frenzy as he pinched and rolled it experimentally between his fingers. She was already so wet, so ready, all coherent thoughts having since long left her, only feelings and sensations reigned.

Her pleasured moans against his mouth encouraged him to drive further, and finding her core entrance, he inserted a curious finger into her. Her reaction was immediate; she groaned and jerked her lower body up to him. Dragging her lips away from his, she pressed her mouth against his shoulders in an attempt to curb the wild sensations racking her as he pushed his finger deeper into her molten heat. She could not refrain from grinding her hip harder up to him, feeling a wild heat flowing though her lower body as he began a slow surging movement of his finger,

"Naruto…" she whimpered heatedly, the sound utterly sexy to Naruto's ears and the sensual scent of her arousal infusing the air.

Needing to touch him as well, Sakura set for a timid exploration of her own, her shaky fingers wrapping around his erect, warm member which nestled among some rough curls. Naruto hissed out in pleasure at the timid groping and tentatively, she began to slowly run her hand up and down his length.

'Sakura…" he rasped hoarsely, buckling his pelvis, pushing himself further into her hand, his breathing ragged and her hand became more daring and moved up and down with more confidence.

Sakura trembled at the raw desire of his voice as he moaned and felt a responding throbbing ache deep within her. A raging need for release suddenly engulfed her; she wanted to feel his hot length inside her, soothing that sweet ache. She pulled both arms up to wind them around his shoulders, clutching him tightly and raising her face up to his throat.

"Naruto…please…" she beseeched heatedly into his skin, shoving her lower body suggestively up to him, all trace of reasons or shyness thrown in the winds as only the new, raging need engulfed her.. She wanted him _now_; she could not wait any longer.

Naruto tried to get a grip on his senses, wanting to slow down things… he wanted to draw out each second of discovering her, he wanted to savor this moment to the fullest; he wanted to _taste_ her in the most intimate way, but the frenzy gripping both of them was driving all his sanity out of the window. He felt at the brink; hot, wild excitement was getting the better of him, his arousal painfully engorged by now. He doubted that he would last much longer.

She buckled her hips insistently and he groaned through gritted teeth, feeling the little remaining control spiraling off.

Settling between her legs, he braced himself with one forearm, holding his member in position at her hot, wet entrance. He raised his eyes to look at her, noting her heavy breathing, her wide, glazed eyes, her flushed face; she looked so sensually beautiful, and all _his_. He paused for an instant, burning the sight in his mind. He again felt a first-timer doubt; but she impatiently rolled her hips up, causing his tip to rub against her hot wetness. They both groaned.

All his doubts fled. This was the girl he has loved most of his life. He decided to let his feelings and body be his guide, trusting his instincts to do things right.

With a strong push of his hip, he entered her.

She stiffened, her mouth opened in a silent gasp at the painful intrusion and he immediately stopped, eyes wide with concern. He leaned over her, raining anxious kisses all over her face.

"Sakura-Chan?" he whispered hoarsely.

Her hands tightened on his biceps and she buried her face into the crook of his neck. "Don't stop," she panted urgently into his skin.

Encouraged, he prepared his hip again and with another powerful thrust he went deeper, her tight walls enclosing him and providing some resistance as he pushed himself to the hilt into her. This time, she could not prevent the low whimper of pain that escaped her and he quickly searched for her mouth, swallowing her moans.

Pearls of sweat adorned her forehead and she paused, the time to let the pain settle and her body to get adjusted him. Soon enough, Sakura felt the pain recede to be replaced by an incredible, indescribable feeling, her whole being gloriously alive and feeling thoroughly complete as she felt him embedded deep within her.

Releasing her mouth, Naruto raised his head to look at her as they stilled for an instance, both shaken and awed by the sweet, ultimate closeness. The whole world seemed to have shrunk to only the two of them; nothing else mattered apart from them and this coming together.

She moved her hips to indicate him to move again. Not breaking their gaze, the darkened blue eyes almost compelling her to drown within the deep fiery pools, Naruto slowly, very slowly, pulled almost half way out of her, to plunge back in, a deep groan escaping him. Sakura cried out at the exquisite, slightly pain-laced pleasure racking through her.

Throwing her arms around his torso, she hooked her legs higher up over his back and he gripped her hip, anchoring her closer to him. He repeated the movement, this time pulling almost all the way out and ramming back into her, going further in by the momentum of his push, her velvety, molten heat englobing him tightly. Both groaned at the intense waves of pleasure crashing through them.

Their panting moans filled the room as Naruto moved in and out of her, his movements quite erratic at first to slowly build into a smoother rhythm, the time for Sakura's body to fully accept him and for his confidence to grow. Guided by her pleasured moans and heeding to the call of his desire, Naruto gradually moved harder and faster, the push of his hip getting more powerful in the motion. His body was slick with sweat, the damp blond spiky bangs falling over his eyes, the late afternoon light glistening on the damp skin of his back as he pushed his pelvis in the deep surging to and fro movement into her.

His breath became jagged while he continued with the rapid rhythm of his thrusts but he did not slow down, his body seeming to have acquired an energy and accord of it's own in this very primal act of love. His eyes feasted on her perk breasts which bounced with each push and he brought a hand up to heatedly fondle the soft mound, producing an even louder moan from Sakura.

Sakura's body seemed to have a mind of it's own as well, her hips instinctively pushing up each time to meet him, participating in this sensual dance as old as mankind. Brows furrowed, gasping and whimpering at the intensity of the pleasure shooting through her, she could feel the tightness in her stomach growing into a ball of fire, intensifying with each of his wild thrust, expanding within her until she felt that she has left ground level and was being lifted higher and higher above. She felt a violent, uncontrollable need to be relieved of the blazing tension building up inside her, almost sobbing at the powerful, so utterly filling hotness moving in and out of her inner core.

Naruto brought his mouth down to hers, their loud, raspy breathing mingling as he lapped his tongue sensually around hers, each brush as passionate as his trusting pelvis. Leaving her mouth, he lowered his head to take a nipple into his mouth and latched wildly. It was too much for Sakura; she went rigid; then felt her inner walls spasming violently around his thrusting length.

"Naruto!" she cried out, flinging her head back, gripping his back so tightly that her nails dug into him.

She felt her head spin and all of a sudden, felt that tight ball of fire in the pit of her stomach exploding, a blazing rush of fluid enveloping Naruto. She gasped his name over and over again, the pleasure slicing through her shattering her voice, her hands clutching him for support as her body was racked with shudders of pleasure.

Her release caused Naruto to bulge and hardened further if it was even possible. Burying his face against her deliciously soft chest, grunting and wheezing, he accelerated his thrusts. With some final jerky pushes, he was sent over the edge too, and with a guttural cry, he released himself into her, his body pulsating with the intensity of his release.

It took quite a while before their minds finally calmed down enough to regain their senses. His body slackened on top of her and they held onto each other tightly, still panting wildly, their heartbeats drumming in their chests, too dazed and spent to utter any words.

Feeling that he was too heavy on her, Naruto gingerly pulled out of her and rolled to his side, though not releasing his hold of her and pulled her across his chest. He dropped an open mouthed kiss on her sweat damped forehead.

"I love you," he whispered when he felt able to speak again.

She raised glowing eyes to his. "I love you too," she whispered back.

XOXOX

An explosion of bright multicolored lights set the sky ablaze, momentarily illuminating the sea of eager and awed faces looking up, loud cheers welcoming the impressive display.

Ino squealed as another shower of fireworks was set off, the bright image mirroring in her wide, enchanted eyes and Chouji smiled at her. The group of friends was sprawled on the roof of the Kazekage tower to watch the fireworks show, courtesy of the Kazekage, the view being unobstructed from the high vintage, some of them sitting, some lying down on the concrete surface.

Sai was busy with his brushes and sketch pad, working on capturing the happiness reflected on their faces on paper as they all shared this moment of celebration under the glittering sky. He had already presented Sakura with an exquisitely penciled portrait of her and Naruto when they were standing face to face back in the room, right before the others left.

Sakura could not believe that she had such an _adoring_ look in her eyes when she had been talking to Naruto; but the details were so vivid that she doubted that Sai would have invented it. She felt quite exposed knowing that her feelings had been so open for all to see, but then she looked sideways at one in her thoughts and her heart raced, her embarrassment seeming so futile.

No more hiding; she could yell her feelings on the roofs for all she cared. She felt so happy that it was difficult to put it into words.

The sky was again illuminated by an explosion of lights and she looked up. "It's so beautiful," she murmured, though her heart was more dazzled by the blond sitting besides her and whose fingers were intertwined with hers, their clasped hands held on his lap.

Naruto nodded, turning to face her, their eyes meeting and locking intensely onto each other, no words needed. He brushed the inside of her palm with his thumb in an unconscious gesture and she felt a warm jolt shooting through her, the delicious, still sensitive tingling of her body reminding her of their recent intimacy.

He had had this bright grin stuck on his face, the cerulean eyes _glowing,_ ever since they've set out to meet the others at the banquet, and she felt a blissful tremor going though her every time she got to be at the receiving end of it, which had been very frequent for the past hour.

Everyone had been happy and very unsurprised when the two had announced their official being together. They had to bear a lot of teasing innuendos though, Ino and Temari pressing Sakura with suggestive questions to the point that the red faced Medic Nin had to practically run away from them.

Having momentarily left the company of the other Kages to join the group on the roof, Gaara looked at his two hand-clasped friends. "I'm glad that Suna got to be the place where you two finally got together."

Naruto spluttered and Sakura turned deep crimson.

The browless eyes glinted with rare amusement. "I mean, you became an official couple," Gaara specified, while a lot of loud snickers fused out from the background. "I hope you'll always think of Suna with fond memories and consider it as your second home."

Naruto felt warmed by his friend's words. "Same as you will consider Konoha as your second home," he smiled.

"So, when's the wedding?" Kiba called from the across the roof, Akamaru adding his usual echoing woof.

The young Izunaka immediately received a painful punch from Ino who was sitting next to him. "Mind your own business!" She hissed indignantly. She may be the number one gossip of Konoha and fully intended to wring out the maximum juicy details from her pink haired friend as soon as she got the opportunity, but she was considerate enough to know _when_ to ask such questions, and now was definitely too soon.

"Hey, what's wrong in asking?" Kiba protested indignantly. "She's already made the vows anyway," he snickered.

Ino started berating him again and they got into a short spat.

"You guys are so troublesome," Shikamaru sighed as he continued to enjoy the view of the sky as he lay on his back; his most favorite hobby of the world, with the clouds missing, though. Temari, seated a few paces besides him, glared at him pointedly and he slid a glance at her, to immediately look away, feeling nervous as he thought about how he would come up with his proposal. He had finally decided to take the plunge; they would deal with the hurdles when they come, the shinobi life was too unpredictable to linger on trifle matters. But the hardest was yet to come – that of proposing to the Suna Kunoichi and he quivered at the idea. He sighed. _Why things are always so troublesome?_ He thought gloomily.

But the main concerned couple was not paying any attention to the bickering friends. Naruto was looking at Sakura while another explosion of lights was triggered above them, illuminating his intense blue eyes. He bent his mouth towards her ear.

"I know it's quite sudden and not conventional," he whispered, "and I don't have a ring to present to you…but …" he took a deep breath as Sakura turned incredulous, sparkling eyes to him, "w-will you marry me?"

She could not reply as at that instance another explosion drowned out all sounds. When the noise died, leaving only the falling showers of lights, illuminating her bright green eyes, she bent towards him. "Yes, I will," she whispered back. "And I couldn't find a better way or time for it."

They had waited long enough; they were amidst their close people - though some of their friends were missing. It was the perfect time and place. She was happy to share this joyful moment with them, and she knew that Naruto felt the same. He was no more, _ever_ again, the lonely, orphaned boy of long time ago.

The blue cerulean blue eyes shone even brighter than the fireworks, the happy grin getting larger if possible. "Yes, Dattebayo!" he whooped, so visibly exalted, while Sakura couldn't help a giggle at his use of his old favorite expression.

"Kiba, the wedding will be soon…as soon as possible," he yelled enthusiastically to the still arguing pair. That immediately stopped the two.

"Kyaaaa?" Ino shrieked. "Billboard Brow, I hope not before _my_ wedding!" she threatened shrilly and Sakura groaned. It seemed she had another bout of competition coming soon from her old rival.

Shikamaru had jumped to a sitting position and looked indignantly at Naruto. _How could he make such a huge hurdle sound so…easy?_ The Nara thought, miffed.

Sasuke grunted and turned towards his two team-mates. "So, congratulations are in order," he drawled and the others followed suit and enthusiastically congratulated the couple.

"Isn't it time that you start to seriously work on the 'reviving my clan' ambition of yours?" Naruto quipped in between back slaps and handshakes and thanks, addressing to the Uchiha.

Sasuke grunted again though a _very_ faint blush adorned his cheeks.

"I hope that now I'll have a chance with Hinata," Kiba murmured absent mindedly, then jumped in fright when he realized that Neiji was standing right next to him and overheard his loud self-musing.

The Hyuuga just looked at him blandly. "You will never know if you don't make a move," was all he said and Kiba almost fainted in shock.

Neiji was too busy in his own thoughts to notice it. Afterall, he had a certain weapon specialist Kunoichi to propose to and Naruto's move had given him the motivation to do it.

Naruto sighed happily, fingers still entwined firmly with the girl of his dreams, soon to be his wife, as they all laughed and chatted and teased each other.

Kakashi's smiled behind his mask as he looked at the young, happy group before him. The new generation _has_ surpassed the previous one; finally, they were to get a happy ending.

The End.


End file.
